Ralph Oberg – NWR Artist

2017 Winner of NWR Founder’s Award of Merit for “WINTER’S BREATH”

2016 Winner NWR Founder’s Award of Merit for “TANGLE CREEK FALLS”

Ralph Oberg was raised in Aurora, Colorado. His love of the Rocky Mountain Wilderness blossomed young and developed into an active lifestyle of backpack hiking, camping, peak climbing, fishing and hunting. The birds of the West in watercolor were his first artistic passion upon leaving CSU in 1970 to begin his independent ways. A brief stint in drafting and architectural illustration ended in 1973 with a month long mountaineering adventure in Alaska. He never looked back and has worked at his art ever since. The work of C. Rungius focused Ralph on big game animals in oil and developed his interest in the painting the pure Landscape as well. Several Workshops with admired working artists provided skills not available at the University, and he has now painted landscapes plein air for over 30 years to learn the colors and values of the world. These studies still inform his studio work whether he is focusing on wildlife or the pure landscape. Annual wilderness trips on foot or horseback into the mountain wilderness continue to be his lifelong love, and inspire his paintings with authentic knowledge. In addition to NWR, he is a Signature Member of the Plein Air Painters of America, California Art Club and the Society of Animal Artists and has shown in many of the most prestigious Western Art shows, and has received numerous awards for his work.