JIM CARSON 1942 -0000 Having earned a Ph. D. in chemistry and molecular physics and served as a member of the faculty of Princeton University, Jim Carson may be the unlikeliest of Western Artists. Born in Little Rock, Arkansas and raised in Memphis, Tennessee, as children he and his brother shared an interest in art. Jim’s interest in the west developed during a two-month sojourn on a ranch in Cimarron, New Mexico, when he was 12, and was further stoked by a steady diet of Western movies. However, Jim’s brother eventually lost interest in art and Jim’s interest in math and science led him to pursue an education in theoretical chemistry and molecular physics, earning a Ph. D. from New York University.
continued to work as an illustrator and in addition began to focus on painting historical western scenes, in his spare time. His historical western-themed paintings became so popular among collectors that by 2001 he decided to move his studio to the Smokey Mountains in North Carolina and devote himself full-time to painting, specializing in large paintings with strong historical narratives. “I’m a hard worker,” says Carson, “I usually spend about nine hours a day in the studio.” Extensive libraries in both homes, a large collection of period costumes, and the thousands of personal photographs of landscapes and horses inform his accurately detailed paintings.
Though Carson excelled in math and science, his passion for art evidently remained very strong. He chose, for example, to attend NYU specifically so that he would be near art museums. And, although a postdoctoral fellowship at Princeton University led to a faculty position there, while a member of the faculty he continued to pursue his interest in art, studying at the Art Students League in New York. Within a few years, Carson’s passion for art won out and he decided to leave a very successful career in academia to begin a new career illustrating covers for Western novels.
“Compared to most western artists, I’m more of a storyteller,” says Carson. “My paintings are mostly about mankind and its struggles—stories about good and evil, stories about humanity.” Nowadays Jim Carson and his wife, who is also a painter, divide their time between their homes in the Smokeys and Arizona.
In 1980 Jim Carson founded Hankins and Tegenborg, Ltd., an agency representing commercial artists, which he oversaw for the next two decades. All the while, he
30
