
Mel Gerhold was born on May 14, 1928 in Baltimore, Maryland. He graduated
from the Maryland Institute of Fine Arts in Baltimore, Maryland in
1955 after a brief sixteen month interlude for the Korean War. While
at the Maryland Institute of Fine Arts, he studied under Jacque Maroger,
formerly of the Louvre in Paris, France. He started painting full
time in 1949 in addition to conducting private art classes in Frederick,
Maryland. He and his wife, Doris, moved west in 1971 to the Crawford,
Nebraska area where they resided for the next twenty five years. During
this period he not only painted but then bought a ranch. He decided
to give up fixing fence and return to painting. In 1997, they moved
to Buffalo, Wyoming. This afforded him a working opportunity for references
and subject matter for his western art. He pays particular attention
to authentic details, such as dress, equipment, rigging, of the period.
Mel does not work from photographs for he does not wish his work to
be influenced by them. He would rather depend on his art ability,
knowledge of the subject and be able to create what he wishes to convey
in his work, not being reminiscent of any other artist. Mel Gerhold
has work in many permanent collections such as the Sangre de Christo
Museum of Pueblo, Colorado; the University of Nebraska in Lincoln,
Nebraska; the Harmsen's Collection of Western Art in Denver, Colorado;
the Amerikus Insurance Company in Lincoln, Nebraska; and the U. S.
National Park Visitors Center in Agate Ranch, Nebraska. The work of
Mel Gerhold has been featured in Art of the West, Western
Horseman, Wild West, America's Civil War magazines
and Leanin' Tree Christmas Cards.