Meadowlark Gallery: The Artist Biographies

Robert M. Cavanaugh
Bob was born April 24, 1927, in the Black Hills of South Dakota. He spent his early years on ranches near the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, where his friends were the cowboys he worked with and the Sioux Indians living around him. During the Second World War, Bob served in the Pacific, Mediterranean, Atlantic and Caribbean, in the Merchant Marine. Bob has always had an interest in art, and his formal training began with a year of fine arts studies at Phoenix, Arizona. He later studied for three years at the Los Angeles Art Center School, majoring in advertising, illustration and design. During the years from 1953-1956, Bob served with the United States Army, and was stationed in Germany, where he took advantage of the opportunities to visit the galleries housing the classics of art. Following his army stint, Bob became a freelance writer of western fiction for the Whitman Publishing Company of Beverly Hills, California. Later, after ten years of design studios, advertising agencies, display firms, freelance studios, and aircraft graphic design work, Bob went to work in the editorial department of the Seattle Post Intelligencer. The newspaper position finally freed him from the pressures of advertising, and allowed him to pursue his fine art. In the fall of 1973, Bob moved his family to Kalispell, Montana to take advantage of the Flathead Valley's interest in fine art. Perhaps best known as a sculptor, Bob is equally adept with watercolor. His subjects range from wildlife to cowboys to coastal and plains Indians of the American Northwest. His work always reflects a great deal of study and knowledge of his subjects, and he has been successful in capturing feelings through stylized or detailed work, as the mood demands.
View high resolution images of works by Robert M. Cavanaugh when available.