John Ford Clymer

Hometown: Jackson Hole, Wyoming
Major medium: Oil
Art background: Vancouver School of Art

John Ford Clymer was born in Ellensburg, Washington in January 1907 and lived his life in the American West - establishing his artistic reputation while living in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. His childhood was spent pursuing his passion for the outdoors and enthusiastically pursuing his artistic talents with constant doodling. As a young man, he was impressed by a magazine salesman who visited the Clymer home and decided to become an illustrator.

"I grew up with a love of the hills and the out of doors. I early began to wonder, 'How can i make a living and stay in the mountains when I grow up?' "

He realized that without training, he could never realize his dream to be a professional illustrator. There were no art courses offered by his high school, so he enrolled in a Federal School correspondence course. While still in high school, his work became a commercial success. He was hired to do local poster art and most often included cowboys, Indians, horses, and other western scences. In 1924, the Colt firearms company bought pen and ink work that John had done, reproducing them in several sporting magazines. After graduatinon, John moved to Vancouver, British Columbia to study at the Vancouver School of Art.

A summer job as a deck hand on a paddleboat along the Canadian and Alaskan coastlines exposed John to a new atmosphere and became an influence in his later content and style. For the next eight years, he workd as an illustrator for Canadian magazines while pursuing his art education. In 1932 he married his childhood sweetheart Doris.

As his career opportunities expanded, John moved to New York to further his reputation and became a regular illustrator more magazines including Field and Stream and the Saturday Evening Post.

As his interest in fine art increased, he found himself back in the West, settling in Jackson Hole Wyoming. He makes an effort to create a strong composition in all of his large scale paintings, which he acheives by starting all of his ideas out as small thumbnail sketches. His work shows a great emphasis on light and movement, attributes which he captures by painting outdoors and from life.

John's work of the Lewis and Clark expedition has been included in the Montana Historical Society's collection, and prints of works such as Sacajawea at the Big Water and Lewis & Clark in the Bitterroots are available at Sacajawe Gallery. Commemorative limited edition collectors' plates are also available.

Sacajawea Gallery - 301 Main st. Stevensville, MT 59870 - (406) 777-3806