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Gouache on Paper by Nicholas Firfires

Currency:USD Category:Firearms & Military Start Price:250.00 USD Estimated At:500.00 - 900.00 USD
Gouache on Paper by Nicholas Firfires
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Depicting cowboy on horseback. Double matted in gold frame. Signed lower right. 15 x 12.
Nicholas S. Firfires 1917-1990 well known Cowboy artist of America.
Nicholas S. Firfires was born on the Waunakee Ranch near Santa Barbara, California November 10th, 1917. Firfires was a descendant of the Californios and vaqueros learned all the skills of working cowboys by living on the big ranches north of Santa Barbara, in San Luis Obispo County. Skills such as, breaking horses, herding cattle, and working cow ponies before he graduated from Santa Maria High School. He worked with horses until he was 24. As a child, he showed great interest and skill in drawing animals, especially horses, and after graduating from high school, he attended the Art Center School and the Otis Art Institute in Los Angeles.

In 1941, he enlisted in the Army and was with the Combat Engineers in Europe, where he did many illustrations for military publications and also portraits of Army personnel. After the war, he opened a studio in Santa Barbara and illustrated for Western magazines while working on easel paintings. His illustrations included “Buck Jones,” a popular comic strip and “Gene Autry” in the 1950s. Portraying western scenes in oil painting and watercolor comes to Nick directly from his experiences of having lived the western life of a cowboy, riding the range and breaking horses.