Biography from Trailside Galleries - WY:
| James Reynolds is known for his realistic landscape paintings of the
American West. He was born in Taft, CA in 1926, and has had an affinity
for the West from an early age when he visited his grandmother each
summer in a remote area of the Sierra foothills. He spent years
on ranches immersed in his subject matter and gathering experiences to
last a lifetime.
After serving in the Navy during World War
II, Reynolds went to art school on the GI Bill. He attended the
Kahn Institute of Art in Los Angeles, CA and then the School of Allied
Arts in Glendale, CA. Reynolds’ first job after art school was as
a technical illustrator in California’s booming aircraft
industry. He then found a job as a sketch artist for the film
industry working for studios such as Columbia, Fox, and Disney.
His movie credits include The Dairy of Anne Frank, The Long, Hot Summer, and My Fair Lady.
In
1967, Reynolds moved to the wilderness of Arizona to pursue a career in
painting. He met Joe Beeler and Charlie Dye, two founding members of
the Cowboy Artists of America, and they invited him to join the
group. Over the next decade his reputation grew as his work
improved. In 1979 he decided to withdraw from the CAA, and worked
alone in his studio.
During this period of solitude, Reynolds’
paintings continued to improve, and he began to receive honors and
awards. In 1992 he became the first artist in the history of the
National Academy of Western Artists to win the show’s three highest
honors: The Prix de West Purchase Award, the gold medal in the oil
category, and the Nona Jean Hulsey Buyer’s Choice Award. The following
year he was honored with a retrospective exhibition at the Gilcrease
Museum and also rejoined the CAA.
Most recently Reynolds was the recipient of the 2000 Thomas Moran
Memorial Award at the Autry Museum Show and the 2001 Masters of the
American West Award at the Autry Museum Show.
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Biography from Altermann Galleries and Auctioneers, Santa Fe - II:
| James Reynolds
“Broad realist” painter of contemporary cowboys at work, born in Taft, California in 1926 and living in Sedona, Arizona since 1967. “Critics don’t bother me a bit,” he declares. “I’m just doing my own thing, with no phony non-sense. I just like to paint cowboys. I’m a realist in every sense of the word, but in painting I lean toward impressionism. As far as my goals are concerned, I just want to be a good painter. And naturally, I want to leave something behind.
When Reynolds was a boy, summers were spent in a small town in the Sierra Nevadas, near Donner Pass. “The whole town was just so full of the mood of the Old West,” he recalls. His interest in art was heightened by getting a calendar with a Frank Tenney Johnson painting that “just turned me on.” After service in World War II, he studied at Kahn Institute of Art in Los Angeles and the School of Allied Arts in Glendale, became a free-lance commercial artist, worked for Lockheed Aircraft as an illustrator, and then for fifteen years sketched and painted for the major movie studios in Hollywood. When he resigned his high paid job to paint full time, his supervisor was concerned, but Reynolds made more money his first year of painting than he had in Hollywood.
In 1974, Marlboro chose a Reynolds oil painting for billboards and magazine around the world. He is a member of the Cowboy Artist of America and has won the “public choice” medal twice. Franklin Mint has published his prints and he has been featured in Southwest Art, February 1977 and Artists of the Rockies, fall 1981.
Resource: Contemporary Western Artists, by Peggy and Harold Samuels 1982, Judd’s Inc., Washington, D.C
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Biography from Claggett/Rey Gallery:
| Reynolds childhood growing up in California steeped him in the lore of the Old West. He spent many summers in the rustic mining town of Washington where his grandmother ran a hotel, built during the gold rush days, on the Yuba River. His love of capturing images of the West was sparked by a Frank Tenney Johnson painting on a 1939 calendar. It represented not only the West he loved, but more specifically, it reflected the painter's impression of it.
After a stint in the Navy during World War II, Reynolds attended the Kann Institute of Art and the School of Allied Art. For almost two decades, Reynolds worked as a production illustrator and designer, the majority of the time spent sketching storyboards and sets for Fox, MGM, Columbia and Disney. In 1968, Reynolds retired from the Hollywood scene to pursue his life long dream of painting the West full-time.
Over the intervening years since, Reynolds has been honored with many awards, including two Colt and two Phippen Memorial Awards. During his years with the Cowboy Artists of America he received Gold and Silver Medals, most recently a Silver Medal for his painting Rest Stop in 2003.
Reynolds has had numerous one-man shows and a retrospective of his work was held in 1993 at the Gilcrease Museum in Tulsa, Oklahoma. |
Biography from Pearce Collections Museum:
| James Reynolds played out the adventures of childhood away from the sprawl of the cities, in the shadow of California's high Sierras. He fell under the spell of the mountains, of uncrowded country, and reveled in stories of wild times and bonanza gold.
His initial interest in art centered upon a Frank Tenney Johnson calendar reproduction he saw at the age of 13. Following service in the South Pacific during World War II, Reynolds studied at the School of Allied Arts in Los Angeles. He then pursued a brief career in commercial art and soon went on to Hollywood to the motion-picture studios where he would remain for the next 15 years.
In the tradition of the great illustrators before him, Reynolds kept a part of himself separate from the routine of his professional work. On his own time he remembered Frank Tenney Johnson and dreamed of unspoiled places against the mountains far from the clatter and clutter of the city. And he painted those places, at first for himself, and then for others who recognized his talent and shared his love of the land.
In 1967 Reynolds gave up a solid career in the film industry and chose instead the uncertainty of a fine-art future on a piece of raw land outside Sedona, Arizona. His art came alive there with the colors of sunup and sundown among the rugged red rocks and beneath the royal blue midday skies. There was an eager audience for his work through the galleries in Scottsdale, and the acceptance of his peers came with membership in the Cowboy Artists of America in 1968.
In the 30-plus years since, James Reynolds has continued to paint from his heart, and his love of landscape remains a dominant force in his art. It is forever the places - wide open, wild and still unscarred by civilization that retain a fierce hold on James Reynolds's sensibilities and inspire his approach to painting.
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Biography from AskART:
| One of Arizona's most prominent 20th-century artists, he is a painter of western cowboy genre and landscape. Born in Taft, California, he spent years on ranches getting to know his subject matter first hand.
He began his art career as an illustrator at major California studios and then went into the Navy during World War II. After this, he decided to pursue a career in art and, financed by the GI Bill, studied at the Kann Institute of Art and the School of Allied Arts in California. Illustrator and Institute teacher Stan Parkhouse was a major influence on him. He then served as production illustrator for Lockheed Aircraft but tired of the repetition of the work so took sketch artist jobs for the film industry with studios including Columbia and Fox.
In 1967, having received much attention for his painting, he moved to Arizona, and settled in Sedona where he became good friends of Joe Beeler and Charlie Dye, founding members of the Cowboy Artists of America. In 1968, he joined the Cowboy Artists of America of which he eventually became an emeritus member in 1977 because he tired of people buying art as an investment rather than for the love of it.
He moved to Scottsdale and worked in the solitude of his studio, achieving what many regarded as his best quality work. In 1992, he became the first artist to win the three highest honors in the National Academy of Western Artists, and the following year, the Gilcrease Museum in Tulsa, Oklahoma held a retrospective of his work. In 1996, feeling a need to rejoin his friends, he again affiliated with the Cowboy Artists of America. |
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James Reynolds is also mentioned in these AskART essays:
Western Painters
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