Ron Rencher
CAA Member since 2024
Born: 1952
Education: Southern Utah University and furthered his education through workshops with many noted artists, including Ned Jacob, Lowell Ellsworth Smith, and Dan Gerhartz.
Ron Rencher was born in 1952 in St. George, Utah. He and his siblings spent the summer months on the family ranch in the Pine Valley Mountains of southwestern Utah. Ron credits ranch life with instilling in him the ethos that have served well throughout his life.
Ron’s father was a budding artist who showed great talent at the college level. Ron’s earliest plein air experience of drawing from life was at the age of ten when a spark of inspiration prompted him to pick up an old board and a piece of charcoal left from a weed fire and sketch an old hay wagon. With this initial spark his career in art was foretold. His first attempts at painting were at the age of twelve when he used his father’s paintbox, brushes, and oil paints.
He earned a BA degree from Southern Utah University and furthered his education through workshops with many noted artists including Ned Jacob, Lowell Ellsworth Smith, and Dan Gerhartz. Other influences include as a teenager, Charlie Russell, and later Joaquin Sorolla, Maynard Dixon, Victor Higgins, Hanson Puthuff, among many. Beyond these influences Ron worked on location, en plein air, for many years to gain knowledge of nature and its abundant subtleties. The accurate depiction of light and form is a constant effort and his approach to painting and creating art is informed by a strict adherence to the principles of art which evolved over many centuries, and which continue to serve countless artists. Additionally, Ron accepts Edgar Payne’s belief that the artist is always the student, and that nature is the best teacher.
Native American subjects are increasingly becoming a part of my subject matter. It is my desire to be faithful to their cultures in my representations of them. My personal philosophy and ethics dictate that I depict the ethos of my subjects with an appropriate degree of authenticity, follow the injunctions of my hosts, and honor their sensitivities. Part of my quest is to portray the Native American relationship with nature, and how life, religion, and art were, and continue to be, a singular and inseparable expression of this relationship.
Perfection may be elusive, but striving for it is the force that moves him to higher achievement. Being accepted into The Cowboy Artists of America in 2024 is a culmination of forty years of hard work and the highest honor and achievement of association in his career.
Ron and his wife and fellow artist Carlene Reeves make their home and studio in Hurricane, Utah.
He is an emeritus signature member of The Plein Air Painters of America.
Ron’s accolades include:
Artist’s Choice Award (Golden Thunderbird gold medal), for the best group of paintings displayed at the Maynard Dixon Country Show and Sale, at the Bingham Gallery in Mt. Carmel, Utah; Best Associate Honorable Mention Award of Excellence, Oil Painters of America National Juried Exhibition; American Impressionists Society’s Best Associate Member Plein Air Magazine Award of Excellence.
Rencher’s inclusion in several books include: Art of the National Parks; Historic Connections, Contemporary Interpretations, Fresco Books; Painters of Utah’s Canyons and Deserts, Gibbs Smith Publisher; Enchanted Isle, A History of Plein Air Painting in Catalina Island; feature magazine articles in Art of the West, American Artist, The Artist’s Magazine, Plein Air Magazine; and the PBS video series Plein Air: Painting the American Landscape.
