Austin Deuel

1939 - 0000

Two things clearly informed Austin Deuel’s life and his art: his deep family roots in Western history and his Marine Corps service during the Vietnam War.

Harry Austin Deuel, III grew up listening to the stories his great grandfather, Harry Austin Deuel, for whom he was named, told about the key roles a number of his ancestors played in the history of the West. William Austin Deuel was in charge of the crew that laid the track for the Transcontinental Railroad from Omaha to Denver. Interestingly, it was he who hired a young Buffalo Bill Cody to acquire the meat that fed his work crews. Osmyn and William Henry Deuel were the scouts for Brigham Young, who led the Mormons to the Salt Lake, where they built the oldest cabin in that area. And, Deuel County, Nebraska, established in 1889, was named for another ancestor, Harry Porter Deuel, who was a superintendent of theUnion Pacific Railroad.

Born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Deuel joined the United States Marine Corps when he was 20 years old, serving from 1959 to 1965. After leaving the Marine Corps he began his career as a full-time artist. He rejoined the Marine Corps in 1967 and was assigned to the Combat Art Program in the Republic of Vietnam. Following his second stint with the Marine Corps, Deuel moved to Scottsdale, Arizona.

Deuel was a painter, sculptor, and author. He also taught art at a junior college, ran an art gallery, and wrote a San Diego newspaper column on artifacts. His sculpture commissions, which have mostly been related to the Vietnam War and the Marines, include: the Vietnam War Memorial in San Antonio, Texas, the General Patton Memorial in Chiriaco Summit, California, the Women’s Veterans Memorial in Phoenix, Arizona, and a Veteran’s Memorial of a WWI Chaplain in Scottsdale, Arizona.

As an author and painter, his work can be seen in his three books, Cañon De Los Artistas, Even God is Against Us, and Swan Lake, Nature's Amazing Grace.

His work as a painter can be seen in The National Museum of the Marine Corps in Washington, D.C., illustrating the annual Western Art Calendars of the early 1970s published by Shedd Brown, on Western Christmas Cards from the Leanin’ Tree Card Company, as prints and original paintings in thousands of rooms in the resorts of Las Vegas, Nevada, and in many private collections.

Deuel’s sons, Ethan and Sam, are artists whose work is heavily influenced by their experience with their father visiting the El Cacarizo de las Flechas Caves in the Cañón de Santa Teresa Gorge in the Sierra de San Francisco, Baja California.

HEADING FOR SHELTER Oil on Canvas 24 1/8 x 48 inches

TRAPPER IN THE SNOW Watercolor and Gouache on Paper 21 ½ x 14 ½ inches