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Like many of his contemporaries, Mel Warren followed an arduous path to achieve artistic success. After
serving a stint in the Air Force, he earned degrees in fine art from Texas
Christian University in Fort Worth, Texas. When he graduated, he found that
there was little in the way of work for a newly minted artist. Galleries for
Western artists were few and far between, and those that were established
already had a number of artists in their stables. To support himself and his
family, Warren turned to the world of commercial art. After working his day
job, he spent the evenings pursuing his real passion – painting the people,
places, and historic events of the West.
The subject matter came easily to
him. His father had been a ranch hand and cowboy, and Warren grew up on a
succession of ranches in Texas and New Mexico. He had ample opportunity to
watch cowboys in many different situations and was familiar with all their
customary chores. He became a keen observer of ranch life and Native American
culture. Warren's fascination with cowboy life and his desire to become an
artist were constants in his youth. He first brought the two interests together
while living on a ranch in Seymour, Texas. After seeing an ad for a course from
the Federal Art School, he performed odd jobs to earn enough money to take the
course. From then on, his life direction was set.
By the early 1960's, Warren
had achieved enough success selling his paintings in galleries to leave the
commercial art field. He joined the Cowboy Artists of America in 1968 and won
the group's Memorial Award in his very first exhibition with them. Skilled as
both a painter and sculptor, Warren specialized in depicting scenes of the
heroic West. His early experiences of ranch life informed his artwork throughout
his career. Many of his paintings were used to tell the history of early Texas
in the books Frontier Forts of Texas and Trails of the Southwest. President
Lyndon Baines Johnson was one of the most avid collectors of Warren's work.
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