Adobe Gallery Blog
Watercolor Painting of Cowboy and His Horse by Olaf Wieghorst - C3876i
Olaf Wieghorst (1899-1988) wandered extensively through the West, sometimes on horseback, finding work in Arizona and New Mexico as a cowboy. Then he went to New York and served as a mounted policeman until 1944, spending most of his time patrolling the Central Park bridle paths and saving many people injury from runaway horses. He began painting in his spare time, and was successful enough that his work was represented by the Grand Central Art Galleries of the Biltmore Hotel.
In 1944, he settled in El Cajon, California. His paintings include cowboys, horses, and Indians in landscape, but there is little if any collectible art of his from his early days in the West. His primary output came after his return to California when he began painting cowboys and horses extensively. He did numerous horse portraits, spending time on ranches studying their unique personalities. He painted celebrity horses including Roy Rogers' Trigger, Gene Autry's Champion and Tom Morgan's stallion.