Mark Maggiori fell in love with the American West when he was a 15-year-old on vacation with his uncle and cousin. It was so different from his home in Paris, France, that he couldn’t help but be charmed by the wide-open spaces, the rugged terrain, and the hard-working cowboys. But when he returned to France, his attention quickly returned to his skateboard and his studies, and the romance of the West was forgotten.

Almost 20 years later, Maggiori found himself at the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. By then, he had finished his formal art training at the Academie Julliard in Paris, spent 10 years fronting a nu metal band called Pleymo, tried his hand as a photographer, and was living in Los Angeles, California. But he had never seen true Western art firsthand.

Mark Maggiori (California)

A Rocky Slope
Oil
30″x34″
“This painting was me trying to be more graphic with the character designs. I’ve been inspired by Winsor McKay for a long time, and I realize that, when I sketch cowboys in pencil, you can see some of his influence. But, when I paint, it disappears, because my style is realistic. In this painting I tried to give the cowboy a more designed aspect.”

Mark Maggiori (California)

Inseparable
Oil
20.5″x28″
“Cowboys and horses are inseparable. Deep in the wilderness, they are always together, and around them the immensity of the sky and the clouds is dancing constantly.”