James Reynolds

James Reynolds was born in a Standard Oil lease house in 1926 and raised in Taft, California. As a boy, he spent summers at his grandmother’s Nevada City hotel, which was situated just beyond the infamous Donner Pass and literally above the south fork of the Yuba River, supported by stilts. In Nevada City he experienced firsthand the remnants of the Old West and heard the stories of that time. Although he dabbled with drawing during grade school, Reynolds didn’t investigate it seriously until after World War II. The trip home from China was a long and boring one; luckily, the sailor on the bunk beside him had a painting kit. Reynolds took to it immediately and, upon returning to America, enrolled in the Kann Institute of Art in Beverly Hills. Reynolds soon found work in Hollywood. For almost two decades, he sketched storyboards and sets for most of the major studios. Finally, after a particularly grueling assignment designing and helping to apply a body of tattoos for the film version of The Illustrated Man, he moved to Sedona, Arizona, and never looked back. Today Reynolds is considered to be one of the finest artists of the Western experience. He was a proud member of the National Academy of Western Art (NAWA) and an active member of the Cowboy Artists of America. In 1992, for his painting Arizona Cowboys, NAWA awarded Reynolds the Gold Award for Oil Painting, the Nona Jean Hulsey Buyer’s Choice Award, and the Prix de West. Reynolds’ other honors include Gold Awards from NAWA, and, from the Cowboy Artists of America, gold medals for best oil painting, Colt Awards, and two George Phippen Memorial Awards.