This is Bob's original painting (from which the posters were printed) of the 60th Anniversary (2008) of Wickenburg, Arizona's world-famous GOLD RUSH DAYS. A really fine, fun and interesting work of art by a true artist of the Great American West. Ride 'em Cowboys!
Bob Coronato used to open books and look at photos of the "Old West" and see cowboys riding the open plains, and he would stop and think, "I wished I lived 100 years ago."
After going out to the very remote West and finding ranches that are still "cowboy" in the old ways, he realized that the West he was searching for as a kid was still there.
"In tiny hidden corners of the country, you can still find places untouched by time. There are ranches that gather 2,000 to 3,000 head of cows on horseback, across 100's of miles of fenceless landscape. The time has come where land is becoming too valuable, and it is no longer affordable to have cows roaming free on open range. This forces ranches to sell off lands to survive, and before long, the 'West' will be gone: old style ranch rodeos, traditional brandings, log cabins with no electricity, and running the chuck wagon during roundup."
Coronato has now become part of the West he was searching for. His paintings document moments in time that show the ways of a fading lifestyle that so many people have admired. For him, the freedoms of the West and the wide-open spaces have become symbols of our great country. The subjects of Coronato's work remind people that there still is a wild and free west.
Living in a remote section of Wyoming and working with ranchers and cowboys, Coronato feels proud to have been lucky enough to be a part of this final chapter in the history of the American Frontier." For now," he says, "the West is alive, it's just hiding in small corners of our country trying desperately to hang on and not be forgotten."
