Michael Untiedt – 2020 Brinton 101

I do a lot of research and painting about the Texas Rangers. One of the last of the old Frontier Battalion Rangers was Ranger Charlie Miller, whose stories were told to me by a retired Ranger who knew him. Charlie was a very cautious man, never holstering a weapon while a felon was unfettered. I’ve thought about that a lot and am trying to establish a painting reflecting this “careful” nature!

Like most everything, we have tremendously romanticized the life of the American Cowboy. Life on a cattle trail was dirty hard work, with poor food and little sleep. It was dime-store novels and early western movies that invented and promoted the icon we admire today, an icon little based on actual fact.

I first painted nocturnes with lone riders in moonlight, and continue to do so today. I like the peacefulness and solitude of a night rider, wrapped in the eternal mystery of a moonlit night, defining some far edges of our humanity.

Born and raised in rural southeastern Colorado, Michael Ome Untiedt maintains a studio in Denver. Through the color, brush strokes, and symbolic subject matter of his paintings, he attempts to examine the human predicament and its connections to the landscape, relying on a lifetime steeped in the traditions and history of the American West. Traveling widely, he is known as a painter that sees with a Westerners’ eyes.   He was recently made an honorary Ranger captain with the Former Texas Ranger Foundation, Fredericksburg, TX for his historical paintings of the Texas Rangers. He was awarded the 2014 Art Committee Choice Award during the Briscoe Museum’s “Night of the Artist” Art Show, San Antonio, TX and the 2014 Wells Fargo Gold Painting Award at the Buffalo Bill Art Auction, Cody, WY.

His work may be viewed on his web site, www.michaelomeuntiedt.com and at the following galleries:  Settlers West Gallery, Tucson;  Insight Galleries, Fredericksburg, TX;  Sanders Art Galleries, Tucson;  West Lives On Gallery, Jackson, WY;  and Manitou Galleries, Santa Fe.