WILLIAM MOYERS
(1916 -1966)
 

Painter and sculptor of objective scenes in Western life, born in Atlanta, Georgia in 1916 and living in Albuquerque, New Mexico. “I paint what I do,” Moyers observes, “because I find the working cowboy, past and present, such a harmonious outgrowth of his whole environment. He accepts the action, weather, loneliness, and responsibilities as a normal existence. Too, there is a lot of nostalgia in it for me—a chance to recapture something of which I can no longer be a part.

“When I was fourteen,” he adds, “I had the fortune to come to the San Luis Valley of Colorado for a summer on a ranch. I did not return to Georgia for five years, and then just for two months.” Before long, his competence as a cowboy helped pay his tuition at Adams State College where he graduated in 1939. He also studied at Otis Art Institute in Los Angeles before getting a job with Walk Disney Studios that showed him that “competent art could be produced on regular hours.” He taught school in Colorado and then served in the Army in World War II. For the next fifteen years, he worked as an illustrator in New York City.

“By about 1962, Western art mushroomed,” he recalls, “and I started putting all my time into that, but I’m no missionary. The West is a real part of my life.” He became a member of the Cowboy Artists of America in 1968 and won the gold medal for sculpture three times by 1975. At the CA show in 1981, his oil “Clearing the High Country,” sold for $8,000 and his bronze “The Warming Cup” for $5,000. He is listed in Who’s Who in American Art, was featured in Southwest Art, March 1980.

Resource: Contemporary Western Artists, by Peggy and Harold Samuels 1982, Judd’s Inc., Washington, D.C.