Basic Guidelines
(Excerpts from Contemporary Western Artists)

1. Become A Specialist In One Aspect Of Western Art

The key to collecting Western art, whether for investment or beauty, is to become a specialist on one aspect of the field, and the narrower that aspect is, the better. Concentrating on a specialty will do three things: 1) it will generate a deeper expertise, 2) it will allow prudent buying to begin sooner, and 3) it will result in a more satisfying, valuable, and exhibitable collection.

You can choose from a number of specialties, which include:

1. An artist: anything by a specific artist you particularly like and admire.
2. Subject Matter: anything by any artist that features cowboys, Indians, landscapes, wildlife, trains, etc.
3. Geographic: artists from Taos, West Texas, The Northwest, Montana, etc.
4. Specific Events: Custer's Last Stand, war scenes, horse races, etc.
5. Time Period: art or artists from a specific era or year, or art showing a specific era such as the West in the 1880's or 1950's.
6. People as Subjects: portrait studies of cowboys, Indians of the Southwest or the Plains anything that shows the subject up close.
7. Techniques: impressionists, realists, photo-realists, classical painters such as from the Hudson River School.
8. Three Dimensional Work: sculptors working in bronze, stone and wood.

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