Bob Wygant Paintings

A painter born in 1927 in Houston, Texas, Bob Wygant created traditional and romantic, panoramic Western landscapes, often with diminished figures of cowboys on horses in river valleys against mountain backdrops. He also did an occasional still life as well as wildlife subjects. Wyant had early exposure to drawing and painting from his father, who was the Heights Movie Theatre manager and gave his son movie posters to copy. Wyant's love of the outdoors was much influenced by his grandfather, who took him hunting and fishing. By age 13, he had determined to be an artist. 

Wygant was offered many art scholarships to attend college but instead volunteered in 1945 for the next two years as a staff artist for the Marines. In 1947, he entered the University of Texas in Austin and studied art on a G.I. Bill until the money ran out. Then, he established a painting career in Houston, where commissions from major oil companies such as Humble Oil Company and Creole Petroleum brought much attention to his painting skills. For Creole Petroleum, he did a series on South America, made possible by them funding several trips to that continent. For 16 years beginning in 1960, he taught at the University of Houston starting out as an assistant professor, and he also worked with the Houston Livestock Show as a judge of art submissions and scholarship applications. By 1976, he had so many commissions that he gave up teaching. Included were illustrations for True West, Saturday Evening Post and Fortune magazines. In 1981, he received "Best of Show" at the Texas Ranger Hall of Fame. Wygant passed away in 2008.