Bob Coronato

Bob Coronato has drawn and painted western subjects his entire life. Upon graduating from Otis/Parsons Art School, he moved to Wyoming to pursue a career as a cowboy artist. “I used to open books, look at the Old West photos and see cowboys riding the open plains. I would stop and think, I wished I had lived 100 years ago. After going out to the very remote west and finding ranches that still “cowboy” in the old ways, I realized that the West I was searching for as a kid was still there. I no longer have a wish to be part of the old days but have become part of the west I was searching for. Coronato has ‘cowboyed’ all over the Wyoming Montana border. Bob’s subjects are drawn from his real life ‘cowboying’ great times. “We are at a clash of two different times: the traditional ‘cowboy’n’ ways are being overridden by the modern, quicker technologies. This is the focus of my paintings,” Coronato says. “I try to document moments in time that show the ways of a fading lifestyle that so many people have admired.” The subjects of Coronato’s work remind people that there is still a remote, free West. The question the artist is asked most often is, “Do they really do that?” Coronato reflects, “Yes, they do—but not for much longer. The ‘West’ is alive, it’s just hiding in small corners of our country, trying to desperately hang on and not be forgotten.” Bobs specialty is oil painting and chine cole’etchings. He paints and creates etchings that seem to capture that fading lifestyle of cowboys and ranchers. Coronato lives half the year in remote, eastern Wyoming and half the year in south[1]ern California. His work has been shown at the High Plains Museum, the Coeur D’Alene Art Auction and in 1995 won Best of Show as the Pendleton Round Up Art Show. Settlers West in Tucson represents his original works. He was nominated by Southwest Art Magazine for “Artist of the New Century Show,” and won the Grand Prize and Best of Show in October 2002.