Robert Lougheed: Follow the Sun

Hardcover, 360 Pages.
11 X 11  |  334 COLOR AND 85 B&W ILLUS.

Follow the Sun is the first book to showcase the full breadth of Robert Lougheed’s artistic legacy. More than 400 full-color reproductions trace his trajectory from early Canadian studies of working horses to commercial work to western scenes and timeless plein-air oils of European subjects, with much in between.

He was the man behind Mobil Oil Company’s legendary flying Pegasus and the creator of numerous magazine covers familiar to a generation of readers. Yet even when fully engaged in commissioned work, Robert Lougheed never ceased to paint for himself, as well, and never drew a divide between the two. Both were about expressing the essence and particularity of life. Lougheed was a true “painter’s painter.”

A quiet, confident man dedicated to painting, Robert Lougheed was born in 1910 and grew up on a farm in Ontario, Canada, the reins of a working horse in one hand and a drawing pencil in the other. After a youthful stint as a newspaper illustrator for the Toronto Star, he studied in New York with Dean Cornwell and Frank Vincent DuMond of the famed Art Students League.

After earning a place among renowned illustrators, Lougheed joined the Cowboy Artists of America and helped found the National Academy of Western Art. Both honored him with multiple awards. He painted prolifically abroad, bringing back scores of fresh oils, watercolors, and sketches from France and England. Wherever he traveled—the Virgin Islands, Hawaii, Alaska, or the American Southwest—he painted incessantly. He mentored many young artists, schooling them in his “creative truth,” which included the necessity of creating from life rather than photographs. Wherever he went, he found horses, and he honored them through his art.

Author Don Hedgpeth makes clear why “contemporary western art owes a major debt of gratitude to Bob Lougheed.” This book takes a long stride toward repaying that debt and introduces a remarkable artist to any who have not yet had the pleasure.

About the Author
Don Hedgpeth is a fifth-generation native Texan born in 1942 close to the New Mexico line. He grew up in Nueces County and lives today not far from where his great-great grandfather hunted wild cattle in the southern reaches of the state. Don taught history at high schools in Montana and Texas before going to work for the Oklahoma Cattleman's Association. Early in the 1970s he worked as founding editor of the National Cowboy Hall of Fame's quarterly Persimmon Hill; as assistant director, then director, of the Buffalo Bill Historical Center in Cody, Wyoming; and as founding director of the Haley Memorial Library in Midland, Texas.

Don's first book, Spurs Were A-Jinglin, was published in 1975, and in 1978 he became a full-time freelance writer and western art consultant, eventually publishing fifteen books related to western art and history. His book Joe Bceler: Life of a Cowboy Artist, also published by Diamond Tail Press and Claggett/Rey Gallery and designed and edited by Carol Haralson, was named outstanding art book of 2004 by the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum. His most recent publication is Remember Me to Them That Ride By, a collection of his essays and poetry.

Don is married to Loree "Sug" Westover and has two grown sons, Cody and Clint, and five grandchildren. He and Sug also have a good dog named Bob.