Buck Taylor - Artistic Pursuits

Artistic Pursuits

In 1993, Taylor began selling his paintings at the National Finals Rodeo in Las Vegas. These paintings are sold through his website, private art shows and festivals, and at galleries. His private commissions can be found in the Loomis Fargo headquarters, the Franklin Mint, John Wayne Enterprises, the American Quarter Horse Association Museum in Amarillo, the National Ranching Heritage Center museum in Lubbock, and in the hands of private collectors Roy Clark, Val Kilmer, Roger Staubach, Powers Boothe, Jasey Wrenn, Sam Elliott, and James Arness. Taylor is the official artist for several rodeos, including the Pendleton Round-Up in Pendleton, Oregon, and state fairs.

Taylor's art touches on all aspects of the American West: cowboys, Native Americans, horses, homesteaders, and the landscape. He has painted drovers pushing longhorn cattle along western trails, braves pursuing the buffalo, or spectacular horse races. Taylor once said that the West Texas ranch is his "church", and his art is his "worship" of the Creator. Taylor's defense of the land is reflected in the film Truce, in which he, as the modern rancher Harry Dodds, uses grace and charm to outwit those who would take his land. Taylor's self-portrait hangs in the Texas Cowboy Hall of Fame in Fort Worth. Taylor is also an inductee of the Texas Cowboy Hall of Fame in Fort Worth and has received the "Spirit of Texas" Award. In 1993, he received the Golden Boot award which honors the "Best of the West" from the Motion Picture and Television Fund. In 1998, Taylor, Rex Allen, and Christina Paine won the "Cowboy Spirit Award".

In 2000, Taylor was memorialized in "The Trail of Fame" on the streets of Dodge City, the western Kansas town where Gunsmoke is set. He has also received the "Spirit of the West" award, along with Jack Palance and Roy Rogers. Additionally, Taylor is recognized on the Hollywood Walk of Fame with his friends Sam Elliott and Katharine Ross. Taylor's star also appears on the streets of "Little Hollywood" in Kanab, Utah. There his star is between Ronald W. Reagan and Tom Mix.

In 1981, Taylor was inducted as a trustee in the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City for his Gunsmoke role. In 2006, he was awarded by the same organization with the "Wrangler" (or Western Heritage Award). Taylor has a plaque on the Walk of Western Stars in Santa Clarita, California, that includes past recipients James Arness and other Gunsmoke alumni, Dennis Weaver and the late Amanda Blake.