Art of the West digital magazine
Issue link: http://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/32473
museums throughout the country, as well as in Russia and Holland. He also is a voracious reader, par- ticularly of books that detail life as it was in the Old West. In fact, he says, a friend recently gave him a book written in the late ‘20s or early ‘30s about a doctor who lived in Cody, Wyoming. “I’m going to do several paintings just from reading that book,” Norton says. “Those stories give me visual references.” Norton also heads to local ranches to set up scenes that he later will transfer to canvas. Such was the case with a buffalo painting that earned a gold medal at last year’s CAA Show. To compose the scene, Norton put two Native American rodeo cowboys in a huge corral with several buf- falo. “They ran them for three hours while I took photos, did sketches, and wrote notes,” he says. “Charlie Russell could have just gone out and watched this; I can’t.” Although he paints in watercolor 40 ART of the WEST • May/June 2011 —“a little, but just for myself”— Norton’s preferred medium is oil. “I dabbled in bronzes, but it’s hard enough to learn one medium,” he says. “Watercolor doesn’t for- give like oil. I think sometimes the public thinks you just sit in front of your easel and start drawing. Photography is only a stepping off point. The most important thing is painting from life. I’ve painted lots of horses and landscapes from life; that’s important. You can’t play bas- ketball unless you learn to shoot; you can’t paint, unless you paint from life.” Accuracy is important to Norton as he sets out to recreate scenes of the past, but art, he says, is more than simply painting a picture. “I think each painting has its own thing you’re trying to convey. Sometimes I think you don’t need to tell the whole story; you leave it up to the viewer. If you took a cowboy and set him on top of a ridge, his leg hung Grandmothers are Watching, oil, 36˝ by 48˝ “Grandmothers were an important part of any Plains tribe. The mother is preparing her daughter in her best dress and combing her hair to go to a women’s ceremony, where they will learn of their duties, taught to them by their grandmothers.” over the saddle, it conveys some- thing to someone.” Norton recalls receiving a tele- phone call from a man in New York, who had purchased one of his pack scene paintings. “There was no story there, but this guy said, ‘Every day I look at this painting before I go to work, and it’s the only thing that gets me through the day.’” That’s a powerful statement and a testament to the power of art. It also is a testament to Jim Norton’s talent. Vicki Stavig is editor of Art of the West.