Spirits of the West: Bill Reid Retrospective
On view April 2 to May 30, 2022
The Brinton Museum
Big Horn, Wyoming
http://TheBrintonMuseum.org
Born Billy Ray Reid, in 1941 in Temple, Texas, “Bill” served in the United States Air Force from 1958 to 1962. After leaving the military he had a variety of jobs and became a truck driver for Western Auto Distribution Center in 1976. His routes included South Dakota, Wyoming, Colorado, Florida, New Mexico, Texas, and Mexico.
Reid began carving on small wood panels, his trusty pocket knife his only carving tool, in 1979. His wife, “Kitty,” bought Bill paint sets during this same time which inspired him to begin painting; his truck routes through the Hill Country of Texas and its vast landscape influencing his colorful acrylics, oils and watercolors. Landscapes morphed into imaginary narratives of hold-ups and saloons, cowboy camps, horses at the watering hole and West Texas windmills.
An illustrated catalog of select works will accompany this exhibition and ten of Reid’s artworks are available for sale.
[Image: Bill Reid, Checking the Herd, wood relief, 1983, 21.25 x 36]
