A sculptor in traditional style of western subject matter and also a painter and ceramist, John Kittelson was self taught as an artist. He was born on a farm in Arlington, South Dakota. As a young man, he worked as a saddlemaker and as a cowboy in South Dakota, Nebraska, Montana, Colorado and Wyoming. He settled in Poudre Valley near Bellvue, Colorado and turned to making leather saddles and belts. His last work in leather was the trophy plague for the Cheyenne Frontier Days in 1957.
The previous year, he began painting in oil, and signed his work with a Tepee Bar brand. Then he turned serious about sculpting and did woodcarving, especially horses. The quality of his work earned him election in the Cowboy Artists of America in 1966. Four years later, he began working in bronze, which earned him more money.
For his woodcarving, he would buy an entire tree, usually a linden tree, and let it sit for several years so that it "cured". Then he had the wood kiln dried and went to work on it with a chisel.
I met John in the 1980s, and can tell you he is absolutely the genuine article. -- Jerry England
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