Shawn Cameron can’t remember when she first began drawing horses. “I never decided I would be a Western artist,” she says. “It was just a natural outcome of my life. I painted or drew horses from—I can’t remember when I started! But from my earliest memory, I drew what I saw, and what I saw was horses and cattle.”

A fourth-generation cattle rancher, Cameron grew up among horses, cattle, and working cowboys. She also grew up immersed in the arts. “My mother encouraged it, always,” she says. “She studied art and music herself, and my brother and I had professional art supplies. She didn’t go and buy us the cheap stuff. I had access to pencils and paper, all I ever wanted. And clay. My brother was a sculptor and painter and jewelry maker. I did all those things, too. I was the one who stuck with it. I just always did it.”

Shawn Cameron

Working Out the Kinks
Oil
16″ x 20″

“Occasionally, a rope will get a kink and the only thing a cowboy can do is stop everything and start over—rewind. Monte Shiew took a few minutes to straighten his rope, and I saw the combination of his red shirt, horse, and the sage brush as elements for art.”

Shawn Cameron

Pasture Pride
Oil
9″ x 12″

“It has always been fun to see the colts our mares and stallion have produced. This guy drew a lot of attention in the pasture by our house, even when he was resting in the morning sun.”