As a boy, James Larson could feel the past all around him.
He heard it’s voice in the cry of the hunting hawk, in the call of the lonely calf, and he saw the shell castings and arrowheads he found as he walked the fence line surrounding his father’s Montana ranch.
He had always loved stories of the Old West, and when he was outdoors the present slipped away, and it was easy for him to imagine that he was a cowboy somewhere between Virginia City and Little Big Horn. He learned as he grew that while the western movies he loved were fun and exciting, they didn’t tell the full story. So he listened and remembered the things real cowboys, like his father and his father’s friends, said and he studied the work of Western artists and writers like Will James and Federick Remington and Charles Russell, and he felt his love for the Old West grow.
And while he eventually grew up and left the ranch, becoming a successful businessman and raising a family, his connection to the past remained.
Sometimes, especially when he was outdoors hiking and fishing, it felt as though Sitting Bull and Calamity Jane and Buffalo Bill Cody were speaking to him directly. Finally at an age when he could have relaxed into retirement, he decided that it was time to share his connection to the West and to give voice to the spirits of our past.
The magnificent Greatest Western Legends in Duo is the result. A beautiful series of nearly life-sized bronze busts depicting pairs of great personalities tied together by history. Larson’s latest work includes Yellowstone Kelly standing on Kelly Mountain overlooking the valley and Buffalo Jump, 29” x 39” x 17” depicting how the Native Americans hunted the American Bison in the 1600’s thru 1800’s. His Greatest Western Legends and his latest works of art are the culmination of his outdoor experience. I worked with one of the best known western artists, Bill Rains, for 12 years. Together we worked on 10 larger than life bronze statues of some of the Greatest Legends in country music: George Jones, Johnny Cash, Willie Nelson, Merle Haggard, George Strait, Garth Brooks, Buck Owens, Bob Wills, Elvis Presley and Hank Williams. I’m currently pursuing a sculpture garden for these country music legends.
The years of camping, fishing, and hiking with James’ family and their pets has been the inspiration behind his paintings. His enjoyment of painting brings back many memories. Jim enjoys painting contemporary and impressionistic acrylic paintings. He paints what he knows – the animals, the landscapes, the people, the way of life in Montana.