ARTIST: Gary Morton (New Mexico, born 1951)
NAME: Trick of the Trade
YEAR: 1984
MEDIUM: oil on canvas
CONDITION: Very good. No visible inpaint under UV light.
SIGHT SIZE: 18 x 24 inches / 45 x 60 cm
FRAME SIZE: unframed
SIGNATURE: lower left
CATEGORY: antique vintage painting
AD: ART CONSIGNMENTS WANTED. CONTACT US
SKU#: 117725
US Shipping $60 + insurance.

BIOGRAPHY:
Gary Morton, time-tested cowboy and talented, point-on painter of the puncher life, is standing in the back room of his house, portions of which are a log cabin built a hundred years ago in this small community a dozen miles north of Las Vegas, N.M.For a normal person this would be the living room, says Morton of the space, flooded by late-morning winter light from a north-facing window. For Morton, it's a studio outfitted with an easel, paints, brushes, prints and paintings finished and in progress.Outside that north window are wide-open spaces stretching across pasture to mountains studded with cedar. But the rugged, rolling, climbing and dropping ranch lands of the West are also in the studio, captured in Morton's art.Men on horseback and the cattle they work populate paintings inspired by life at ranches such as the Cates Ranch west of Roy; the D Ranch between Carlsbad and El Paso; and the O6 Ranch in the Davis Mountains of west Texas.But mostly, in pieces with titles such as Trot and Trot Again, We Rode Out on the Morning and the 40-by-60-inch Living the Dream, Morton's work is set on the historic and sprawling Bell Ranch near Tucumcari. And that's the way it should be. Because he got his start, both as a cowboy and as an artist, at the Bell.Morton, 67, has earned his share of calluses, rope burns and accolades over the years. He started as a green cowboy at the Bell just out of high school, hired on at various other ranches over the years, worked his way up to jobs such as Bell Ranch wagon boss and manager of the CR Ranch near Las Vegas and ran his own stock on leased grazing.He has served as chairman of the New Mexico Arts Commission and director of the state's Office of Cultural Affairs. In 2015, the New Mexico Department of Agriculture recognized Morton with the Rounders Award, presented to people who live, promote and articulate the Western way of life.