About
Jim C. Norton, long-standing member of the Cowboy Artists of America, is world renowned for his renditions of western art and depictions of historical and modern life in the west. His painterly use of color brings life to the stunning vistas portrayed within his art. Jim particularly loves to express his personal experiences living and traveling through the west working with cowboys and Native Americans.
Born in Price, Utah, Jim Norton is known for his paintings of real-life cowboys and their horses. He also paints Indians and has a collection of authentic Plains Indian costumes.
He spent most of his youth in western Wyoming where he gained a working knowledge of ranch life. His skill at depicting the cowboy and his activities earned him membership in 1989 in the Cowboy Artists of America, dedicated to the painting tradition of Charles Russell and Frederic Remington.
He was raised in Lyman, Wyoming, and showed art talent from childhood. Following high school graduation, he spent two years as a Mormon missionary in Australia and then studied art briefly at Brigham Young University under William Whittaker. Mostly he followed the advice of a teacher who told him to go out and paint, paint, paint. While his wife taught school, he worked for a food broker and painted when he could, and then finally quit his day job to paint full time.
He and his wife raised their four children in Santaquin, Utah and his studio has a view of mountains 11,000 feet high. He also owns seventeen acres in Wyoming where he paints wildlife and landscape. He is convinced that painting from life is what lends authenticity and vitality to his paintings. He paints 10 to 12 paintings a year, often working on several at a time.