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“You can still find this elevator standing outside of Big Timber, Montana,” begins Tom Gilleon, “but the beautiful artwork is gone. The corrugated metal on which it was painted has fallen away, revealing the aged and weathered wooden structure beneath.
“I’d like to imagine that this Montana grain elevator artwork was the inspiration for the cowboy on the bucking bronco we associate with the state of Wyoming as opposed to the other way around. The most widely recognized version first showed up on Wyoming license plates in the 1930s. There is a big debate in Wyoming as to the horse pictured (is it Red Wing, Steamboat or Deadman?) and who the rider is (Guy Holt or “Stub” Farlow?). The Wyoming National Guard has had its own version since WWI and the University of Wyoming got theirs in the 1920s. What if the cowboy and horse are Big Timber locals and that all the other designs were inspired by the site of this magnificent Montana artifact? That would be a neat story.”
Renowned for his contemporary vision of the Old West, Gilleon weds perfectly representative and abstract art. Most of his compositions are simply a series of vibrant triangles, squares, circles and rectangles. His seamless blend of graphic art and classic representational storytelling has collectors snatching up his artwork as soon as it becomes available. "Best Out West" is presented as a gallery-wrapped edition of only 25 pieces. Grace your home or office with this alluring work of Tom Gilleon’s art.
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“Looking back, I was probably most influenced by the old era art directors and
illustrators who had the amazing ability to quickly and simply tell a story or
convey a feeling with their artwork. I believe that this simplicity and strength
is the key to fine art. Light, color, value, composition and line are paramount
in importance.” – R. Tom Gilleon
R. Tom Gilleon’s art is hard to pigeonhole. His interpretations of the American
West are genuine and unique. His representations of native teepees are
archetypal and primitive in their basic forms yet they are remarkably
contemporary in composition with a sprinkling of personal symbols and humor.
Gilleon’s work is coveted by collectors, increasingly finding homes in prominent
museums and auctions such as the Coeur d’Alene.
Gilleon was born in 1942 and raised in Florida by his grandparents in the tiny
outpost of Starke, near Jacksonville and the storied banks of the Suwannee
River. His grandfather had immigrated to the United States from Scotland and
became a renowned cabinetmaker. His grandmother was a full-blooded Cherokee.
Gilleon earned a scholarship to play baseball at the University of Florida where
he took courses in architecture. He served in the Navy in the early 1960s and
then worked as an illustrator for NASA’s Apollo space program. Eventually, he
went solo as a freelance illustrator based in Orlando and was hired by The Walt
Disney Corporation to deliver conceptual sketches and designs for its Disney
World theme park. Later, he moved to California to work at Disney’s Imagineering
studio which designed Epcot Center and then Gilleon assisted in the planning of
Disneyland Tokyo, Disneyland Hong Kong and Disneyland Paris.
The American West left a mesmerizing impact on him as an artist. Gilleon and his
wife first built a home along the Dearborn River in Montana, and later purchased
a ranch near Great Falls not far from the legendary Old North Trail where native
peoples traveled millennia ago from the Arctic to the desert Southwest. Here
Gilleon found clusters of teepee rings from encampments which inspire him to
contemplate how the camps might have looked centuries ago.
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