Known for his realistic depiction of Indian figures, Donald Crowley was born in Redlands and raised in Santa Ana, California from the time he was ten years old. He showed art talent from childhood. Of his personal feelings about art expression, he said: "Art is like sex. It's something that you do; not something that you talk about."

As a young man, he was a close friend and painting companion with Mervin Corning, who became an accomplished watercolorist. Crowley was heavily influenced towards subjects and technique by Frederic Remington's book, Done in the Open, and also by a book of English painters, titled World Famous Paintings, edited by Rockwell Kent.

He spent four years in the U....