BRUCE
GREENE
“ I want them to feel connected to the Western world and get a sense of that freedom.” - Bruce Greene
6 | SPRING 2015
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Driving north of Waco on Highway 6, it only takes about 30 minutes for the landscape to change dramatically. Flat fields give way to steep inclines of earth, and the road obediently twists and bends to fit the landscape. At about mile 35, a diminutive town named Clifton rests on both sides of the highway. Nestled comfortably between the hills that surround Clifton is a ranch where a cowboy artist paints for a living and lives what he paints. Bruce Greene’s studio is exactly where you’d imagine a Western painter would do his work. A cheery wood stove warms the room, the walls of which are stacked high with books on art and cowboy culture. The scents of oil paints and sawdust combine and produce a welcoming fragrance. Paintings and sketches stand in their frames, forming a little maze of walkways. On the back wall of the studio, a large window opens to an unblemished view of the pasture to the north, framed on both sides with trees and brushy grass. This bewitching land suits Greene and his work well. Many artists document scenes they observe, but not many cowboys paint and sculpt their interpretations of daily life on the range. This is what sets Bruce Greene apart from his contemporaries. “What I’ve built my career on is the documentation of the contemporary cowboy life,” he explained. “I combine that cowboy experience with a whole other world, which is art. What I bring to the table is kind of this unusual mixture of two worlds.” Greene certainly looks the part of a painter, sporting a green polka dot kerchief tied around his neck, cuffed jeans and a smock embroidered with his name near the left lapel. He didn’t always know whether he would end up here, peering through bifocal lenses at a canvas as he thoughtfully mixes paints with a long-handled brush. Greene’s background in art began with parents who lovingly fostered his natural talent. One day, while visiting an aunt in San Antonio, the Greenes sat young Bruce before a French easel and “it was like a light turned on,” he remembers. Though he’s been drawing and painting since before he
could read and write, the Mesquite native was unaware at first where his talent would take him. “I didn’t think you could make a living doing this,” Greene said, claiming that he only majored in art as a student at the University of Texas at Austin because he didn’t think he’d finish school studying anything else. While at the university, Greene did rodeo portraits on commission. His cowboy paintings and drawings were not widely admired by his professors, however, he didn’t have much support for the style of art that he loved most. “The thinking there was very abstract, and what I wanted to do was not popular with them,” says Greene. Greene didn’t let these opinions obstruct his pursuit of a true passion. After graduating from UT, he continued making Western art. But he was married with a young child and was running out of ways to pay the bills. A friend told Greene about an art show happening on the square in Rockwall County, so Greene packed up some paintings and traveled to the show. He sold six pieces for $132.50 total, “but that bought groceries.” After the show in Rockwall County, Greene felt he might be onto something. He began selling his pieces at art shows around the state until art buyers gradually realized the cowboy paintings were worth more than a hundred bucks apiece. “By then, we’re talking about the ’80s,” Greene recalls. “The oil was good, and then it fell off, but my stuff was still so cheap at that point that I was able to stay with the business.” The artist continued painting on commission into the late 1980s until he began to study at the Cowboy Artists of America Museum, taking every class they offered for seven years. Then, in 1993, Greene was elected to membership in the Cowboy Artists of America, a highly esteemed organization of Western artists dedicated to preserving the culture of cowboy art. “That had a really huge impact on my career,” Greene says. “It’s very exclusive, and so it carries with it a brand that is recognizable in the art world. It has a tremendous impact on representational art in America in the last 50 years.” OPPOSITE PAGE Greene gazes out the window of his studio for inspiration from the land. BOTTOM LEFT The artist touches up a piece of his Western art. MIDDLE A rustic pair of broken-in boots adorn Greene's feet in his rocking chair. RIGHT Some of his brushes and tools create a piece of art on their own.
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