User:Robert stratton shufelt/sandbox

For additional information please go to shooflyart.com Robert Stratton Shufelt aka. “Shoofly” [ Feb 16,1935-]

In 1976, switching from commercial Illustration in Chicago for a career as a cowboy artist, Robert Shufelt relocated his family to an isolated ranch in Arizona. For the next few years the move allowed him the opportunity to grow as an artist, develop ranching friendships, and grasp a way of life where individuality, spirit and integrity were solidly hitched to "The Cowboy Way.”

Adopting the nickname “Shoofly” as his signature, he realized that discovering a point of view and creating images which people would relate to could be daunting. To be an artist is a compulsion, not a decision. What endures in art beside expertise is subject matter! An artist has to find it, preferably through originality. Due to minimal regard for the graphite medium, Robert had to accomplish extraordinary art to advance into the higher echelons of the fine art market. Eventually, collectors who understood that Shoofly captured the ranching culture, validated his drawings which in turn, elevated his career.

Art is nothing more than an extension of the person behind it. If fundamental art principles are ingrained in an artist's subconscious, they are freed to explore their individuality and stretch the limits of their talent, thereby enabling them to find recognition on their own terms. Robert believes that a photograph will outwit an artist unless they have established a background in life drawing and anatomy. Rendering a photograph in very tight technique can look impressive, but there is nowhere to grow. Some of his drawings just happen and he doesn’t have a clue as to how, while others are a struggle right-up to the deadline. It’s a darn thrill when Robert can produce a drawing that honors his wife’s enthusiasm. Nothing leaves his studio without her blessing.

Cowboys have always been Robert's heroes. He feels that much of today’s cowboy art romanticizes and thus misrepresents the cowboy. He knows of no other labor which involves so much skill for so little pay as that of the professional cowboy. In the past hundred years what other working men have had art forms written, filmed, photographed, recited, sung, painted, drawn, and sculpted of their eminence? The artist believes that it is because cowboys work off the backs of horses. Horses give a men nobility. Robert has a deep affection for ranch animals, especially horses.

Robert's aspiration for drawing “the cowboy way” is to depict the spirit of ranching. He never stages a theme to draw, but worked from environmental and cultural involvement with his subject. Being a “good hand” [helper] during roundups and day work takes precedence over amassing reference material. Inspiration is sparked from the shutter click of his camera in reaction to his mind’s eye, which is plugged straight to his heart. In other words, being a part of the action is the cause and effect that kindles Shoofly’s art work. It involves long hours of hard work, whether sitting in a saddle or at a drawing board. The longer he works, the more he understand his kinship and response to graphite. In 2015, at the age of 80, Robert “Shoofly” Shufelt has no intention to lay down his pencil. “If I can keep my hand steady, and find that little hole in the pencil sharpener...I’m good! My ultimate wish is that my work will be a part of an artistic and cultural history. In reflection, I’ve had a wonderful career and a great life!”

Among other national museums, his work has been accepted into the permanent collections of the Tucson Museum of Art, The National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum, The Mountain Oyster Club, and the Sangre de Cristo Art Center. In 2014 Shoofly received The New Mexico Governor’s Award for Excellence in the Arts. The New Mexico Farm and Ranch Museum established a gallery to display a collection of lithographs, donated by the family, which were published throughout the artist's career. The Shufelts started publishing selected drawings in 1979, however, the technology involving offset and digital lithography has advanced remarkably since, while stone lithography, dating back hundreds of years, still remains an art form. The artist also has written, published and successfully marketed three books," Drawing from Experience", "The Point of My Pencil", and "Raised on Good Pasture".