When Jim Rey’s mom died a few years ago, he found some of his childhood drawings that she had saved in a box. The pencil drawings, which Rey had done when he was just 4 or 5 years old, were of horses and cattle. Which is what Rey, now 74, is still drawing and painting.

“It’s not something I’m going to outgrow,” he says. “I just really like the subject matter. I like painting the Western experience, so that’s what I’ll keep doing.”

Jim Rey (Nebraska)

Point Rider
Oil
36” by 24”
“I vacillated between choosing to do this painting as a vertical or a horizontal. I eventually chose the vertical, because I thought it might make an interesting and more challenging composition. I was correct in thinking that it might be more challenging.”

Jim Rey (Nebraska)

T-Cross Outfitter
Oil
30” by 20”
“The entrance to the T-Cross ranch in Wyoming is very attractive. I chose to paint it from inside the ranch and keep it in the background, because it has, I’m certain, been photographed and/or painted to death from outside looking in. That being said, I still wanted to paint it, so I adjusted my point of view and composition to something that was fresh to me.”