Melvin Charles Warren (March 19, 1920-August 4, 1995)

For western art to achieve the distinction of fine art, it must first satisfy an artistic criteria and only then deal with the particularity of western subject matter. Melvin Warren understands this concept. His work is an accomplished artistic statement that also presents images which are faithful to western reality.

Warren was born in California in 1920 and lived in Arizona and New Mexico before coming to Texas at the age of fourteen. He has seen the beauty and felt the lure of the Southwest and it stimulated his boyhood desire to be an artist. After service in World War II, Warren entered Texas Christian University and received a degree in fine arts. During the day, he worked in the best tradition of commercial art work, and in the evenings he painted out the western fantasies that crowded his mind.

These paintings and the process of creating them encouraged Warren to seek a gallery outlet. The subtle sensitivity to his subject matter and an obvious control of the technical elements of painting made his work readily acceptable to a broad range of collectors. He became a special favorite of Lyndon Johnson who ultimately acquired many Warren oils.

Melvin C. Warren is buried at Clifton Memorial Park, Clifton, Bosque County, Texas.

Sources include:
The American West: Legendary Artists of the Frontier, Dr. Rick Stewart, Hawthorne Publishing Company, 1986.
www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=17175117

The artist was born in Los Angeles, California in 1920. He died in Clifton, Texas in 1995. The artist lived as a child on ranches throughout California, Arizona, New Mexico and Texas. He served in the Air Force during WWII.

Warren earned a degree in Fine Art from Texas Christian University in 1952 and also studied under Samuel Ziegler. His palette emphasizes earth tones -browns, reds, yellows. His subject matter emphasizes the history of the West - cattle trails and frontier forts.

He was a member of the Cowboy Artists of America. His work is extensively exhibited at Southern Methodist University in Dallas and is housed at the LBJ Library in Austin.