User:Vyo1949/Bill Owen (artist)


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Bill Owen is a professional artist for 40+ years, portraying the contemporary working cowboy in oil painting, watercolor, drawing, sculpture; Bill Owen was born in 1942 in Gila Bend, Arizona to a mother who was an artist and a father who had been a cowboy throughout the early 1900s. These influences shaped his desire to be an artist and cultivated his interest in the cowboy lifestyle.

Inducted into the Cowboy Artists of America in 1973, Bill has served as CAA President three times and has earned numerous medals and awards at the annual show at Phoenix Art Museum, including the CAA Award four times. This highly coveted award is decided by a vote of the active CAA members for the best overall exhibition.

In 1989, while practicing for a rodeo, Bill survived a freak accident, which resulted in the loss of sight in his right eye, affecting his depth perception and forcing him to give up sculpting. He never allowed himself to consider this loss a handicap but greatly missed the medium for thirteen years, successfully resuming sculpting in 2002.

For all of Bill's artistic achievements, he is especially proud of The Arizona Cowpuncher's Scholarship Organization, which he founded in 1995 to help finance college educations for young people from Arizona ranching families.

Bill's work is highly sought after and museums around the country hold original pieces in their permanent collections. Not a prolific artist, his participation in shows is minimal (annually the CAA Show and Prix de West Invitational at National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma) and he has a waiting list of people wishing to acquire original works; many of which have been waiting in excess of five years.

Bill and his wife, Valerie, live in Kirkland, Arizona.

Bill Owen website: http://www.BillOwenCA.com

Cowboy Artists of America website: http://www.CowboyArtistsOfAmerica.com

The Arizona Cowpuncher's Scholarship Organization, Inc. website: http://www.AllAboutACSO.com