HOWDY!
Welcome to My West!
“This book is full of fantasy, hardship, great joy, and endless effort to live my dream of painting the West. Because of the value I place on books it iiso nly natural for e to use this medium to document my story. Books have brought the great art of the world into my lfie. I am aware of many artists and paintings that I would never have known about if someone hadn’t made an effort to document them. My frustration with many of these beautifully printed books is the most of the text is written by someone other than the artist. The reason for this, of course, is that until recently the printing industry was too much too compliated and expensive for an artist to take on such a project.
What a joy it has been for Irene and I to tell our story wihtout the concerns of a publisher or book distributor. We have chosen to share our story with you in our way. We hope our story will encourage others to pursue their dreams. This is a wonderful time to be an artist. The artists that preceded us over the past one hundred years have opened the door to individual expression. Not only do artists get to work from their own unique voice, today’s collectors have the same freeedoms and appreciate their own relationship with art… No longer does the church, government, or handful of galleries determine what art is created for our society. The market place offers a wide range of opportunities for an artist to display and sell his/her work.
I am thankful for all of my experiences in the world of business before I committed to creating art on a full-time basis. It was in that world I discovered the value of first creating my product and then finding a market. As a younger man, much less secure in my own voice, I probably would have tried it the other way around. I value every painting in this book just as I do the hundred of others that don’t appear. I am proud of the fact that each is my best effort at the time I created it. I have no favorite because each step could not have been made without the other.’
– Larry Pirnie
