Ken Laager

BACKGROUND

Like many western artists, I enjoyed a long career as an illustrator before turning to gallery painting.

As a child I was enamored with the art of illustration, particularly work from the era known as The Golden Age.  I collected prints of artists Frederic Remington, Howard Pyle, N.C. Wyeth and Phillip R. Goodwin, and of the heirs to their legacy Tom Lovell and Frank Frazetta.  

After completing a certificate course at New York's School of Visual Arts, I settled in rural Pennsylvania to concentrate my studies on the work of Howard Pyle, and his Brandywine school protégés.  I broke into the field a short time later, with a reputation for portraying western and adventure subjects that rang with authenticity.  Freelancing to major New York publishing clients produced a demand for book and magazine illustration that actually exceeded my ability to supply.  I was appointed Artist-At-Large for Outdoor Life magazine, where my work as featured monthly.  Bantam Books coined the term "western fine art look" to describe the scores of cover paintings I created for their frontier historical novels.

Naturally, I was aware of the burgeoning western fine art market, and of the superb illustrators who were transitioning westward.  In 1989 pioneering gallery founders Allan and Sheila Husberg invited me to exhibit at Husberg Fine Arts in Scottsdale.  Initial successes encouraged me to devote increasingly more effort to gallery painting -- now, the exclusive focus of my work.

In recent years my work has shown at Settlers West in Tucson, and at Astoria Fine Art in Jackson Hole, Wyoming.  

I'm honored to have my work included in many private and museum collections.