This East Texas artist is known for his watercolors and oil paintings that feature Texas ranch life, including his love affair with cutting horses, longhorns and rural landscapes. He is particularly admired for his special understanding of the contemporary working cowboy of today and always strives for originality and quality in his art work.
Having worked as a graphic artist for several years, Howard is a member of the North East Texas Fine Art Alliance (NETFAA) and the Southwest Watercolor Society. He is available for commissions.
Howard was born on a farm in central Oklahoma in 1942 where he lived with his grandparents. He can still remember his grandfather driving a team of horses to work in the oil fields each day and occasionally sitting up next to him on the wagon seat. He also enjoyed visits to a nearby rodeo arena. Those were his first vague recollections of being around horses, starting his love affair with horses.
His love of drawing began with art school classes. From that point on no blank piece of paper was safe, even in his text books. Horses were always the subject.
His family moved to Dallas in 1948 and later to Fort Worth. In those days the kids of the neighborhood would gather at the house of a neighborhood family and enjoy Roy Rogers, the Cisco Kid and the Lone Ranger. He then began adding cowboy themes to his art and his goal became like all young boys of the time, to be a cowboy. His dream of owning a horse remained just that, a dream. Becoming an artist was also looked upon as foolishness, not something that would earn a man a living.
After a stint in the Army, the first thing he did was to buy a horse . Not being one to do things half way it was time to live out his dreams. It didn’t take long before he was riding every horse he could. He landed a part time job with no experience breaking colts for a man who raised quarter horses. He was fairly good at it and was able to get other riding jobs as well. His basic necessities of food and shelter were meager but he had no complaints. He was in heaven and would have paid money to do the work.
The dream of creating art remained in him but he was at a loss as to how to fulfill it. He began an art correspondence course that he did not complete. He remembers buying the Western Horseman magazine for the purpose of studying the painting on the cover and reproducing them. His first glimpse of a horse painting by the western artist Orren Mixer helped him make a firm decision to somehow pursue his artist calling in earnest. However, getting married put a stop to all his plans. Art and the cowboy life were put on hold, but his newly created sign painting business fed his creative desire for a few years.
Finding himself single once again in 1984, he decided that he would take an art class in college and focus on his art. With encouragement of his second wife, he began to come to terms with his ability as an artist. One regret is that his father never saw his success as an living artist.
Howard now has a studio and art gallery in Canton where his work has been displayed and is purchased by collectors. Like many of our
Texas artists, he enjoys working in both watercolors and oils, as each medium has its own challenge. Winning numerous awards and ribbons, his art work hangs in many public and private art collections in the United States and throughout the world.
For more details about
Texas art, or to purchase one of Howard Dubois' art prints, click on any picture below.
