Participating Artists
Bill Mittag
Oil, Southwest

Biography / Artist Statement
Bill Mittag was born in West Texas and grew up in southeastern New Mexico. His first real exposure to art was feed store calendars that came to his family’s house each year, filled with reproductions of artwork by Charles M. Russell, Frederic Remington, and others. On days he wasn’t out wandering on the prairie, he would sometimes make pencil sketches of the cowboys and horses on the calendars, not realizing those sketches were the first step on a path to an art career.
Due to health reasons, he could no longer compete on the rodeo circuit and left with too much spare time and little to fill it. He started turning his rodeo memories into pencil sketches. Jeannie bought him oil paints and brushes for Christmas that year, which created the spark for his artistic career.
His work has been featured in publications such as Art of the West, American Artist, Southwest Art, and Western Art Collector.
He is represented in galleries in Texas, Colorado, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Montana