William Matthews ─ Working the West

Watercolorist William Matthews has long been hailed as the preeminent painter of the American West. In this new collection of 180 staggering paintings, he captures the full range of western experience: endless skies, high plains, the last working cowboys, the Navajothe mystique of the Living Desert. Steeped in introspection and connected to land, tradition, and identity, Matthews' work evokes a place that is authentic, anachronistic, and dynamic. An essay by award-winning writer Annie Proulx provides insight into both the ranching and the art-making life, resulting in a glorious homage to this ancient terrainsome of the last untamed wilderness in America.

William Matthews is a painter, designer, and musician who was raised in San Francisco. He owns a gallery in Denver and has shown paintings in many prominent galleries in the United States and Europe. He lives in Evergreen, Colorado.

Annie Proulx is the acclaimed author of The Shipping News and three other novels, as well as several short story collections, includingClose Range (which contained the story "Brokeback Mountain," upon which the Academy Award(tm)-winning film was based). Winner of the Pulitzer Prize, a National Book Award, the Irish Times International Fiction Prize, two O. Henry Prizes, and a PEN/Faulkner Award, she lives in Wyoming and Newfoundland.