Born in Hutchinson, Kansas, Gary Carter is a realist painter and sculptor of the contemporary and historic American West including cowboy's, mountain men, Indians and the landscape where they live or lived.

Many of his childhood trips were with his father backpacking in the Sierra Mountains of California. He served in the Army, and then earned a BFA degree with honors from the Art Center College of Design* in Los Angeles. He had moved to California with his family when his father took a job with Walt Disney productions.

From 1971-1972, he was the in-house illustrator for a California design studio, but a sell-out show in 1973 of his own art persuaded him to become a full-time painter. In 1978, he won...