Featured Artist - Russell Houston

As a graduate of the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, California, Arizona artist Russell Houston began his career doing illustrations for several Phoenix based advertising agencies.  However, he soon began to resent the pressures of the job, and turned to painting western images as a means of  relaxation.   He quickly attained a major following for his painterly renditions of the contemporary working cowboy.     

Since Houston was already doing traditional western art, adding the element of golf in 1994 was not a major transition.  The idea stemmed from a photo his wife Kristi found in a book on Arizona statehood, which showed cowboys playing golf.   Houston decided to combine familiar elements of  the game with cowboy settings, using whimsical viewpoints and clever titles, to stimulate the viewer's imagination.

When painting his golfing cowboys, Houston remains as true as possible to the vintage photo which first inspired the work, dressing the  cowhands in dusters and wide pants tucked into their boots.  "I try to keep all the accouterments - the spurs, gun belts, hats and bandanas  - as historically accurate as possible.

Among the cowboys depicted in Houston's paintings are his friends Wayne Ramey and Charlie Coppinger.  Wayne, when not working as an extra in TV and films, is an outfitter in the Arizona Mountains.  Charlie trains horses and mules for outfitting and packing.  Houston says of his paintings, "Nothing goes right for these characters that Wayne and Charlie portray.  They have become the Laurel and Hardy of the western art world."