2024 Bighorn Rendezvous – John Taft

Originally from western New York, John moved west to Colorado with his young family in 2004 to pursue painting, a major change in career.  Prior to that, John worked as a designer/art director for eighteen years, primarily in New York City.  His love of the West was instilled over multiple trips across this great country during his college years at Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, California.  At one point as he drove west to begin his new job in LA, he took route 14 through the Bighorns.  For a moment the thought occurred to him to stop and find a job on a ranch in the area and start painting the landscape.  The idea gradually disappeared as he descended the mountains to continue on to California.

John has been in numerous national shows including the Coors Western Art show in Denver, where he won an Award of Excellence, New York’s Salmagundi Club’s American Masters show, and has had numerous solo shows.  In 2021 he received the Gold Award at the Oil Painters of America Western Regional Exhibit and last summer he was awarded Gold at the Oil Painters of America Masters Show.  His painting, “Thunder Run”, was added to the permanent collection at the Museum of Western Art in Kerrville, Texas.  He has been the subject of feature articles in both Southwest Art Magazine and Western Art and Architecture.