JohnCogan.com - The Artist

When he is asked by younger artists for advice, John Cogan says to "paint what you know." He follows that counsel himself, painting the western landscapes that he has loved since he was a boy.

His work has been featured in SOUTHWEST ART magazine (October 1989) and in ART OF THE WEST magazine (September/October1995 and March/April 1990). John's biography is included in WHO'S WHO IN AMERICAN ART, and the 2000 edition of WHO'S WHO IN AMERICA. During the past few years, John has placed twelve paintings in the TOP 100 of the Arts for the Parks competition. He has won three awards, including the first ever Collectors Award in 1995 and the Landscape Award of Merit in 1994. Three of his images have been published as posters by Images of America, and a number of others have been used on greeting cards, calendars, and post cards. A one-man invitational show of John Cogan's paintings celebrated the opening of the Henderson Fine Arts Building on the campus of San Juan College in Farmington, New Mexico in October, 1994. In 1997 John was commissioned to paint AFTERNOON AT ECHO AMPHITHEATER for the college. This 60 by 48 inch painting now hangs permanently in the foyer of the Henderson building. John has a number of works in the permanent collection of Citizens Bank in Farmington, as well as other public and private collections throughout the country. In 2000 John was commissioned to paint a 10 foot by 4 foot painting for the new Courthouse in Albuquerque. This painting is on public display in the Jury Assembly Room.

In September of 1999 John was invited to join 14 other nationally known landscape artists to paint the interior of the Grand Canyon. The artists spent eight days rafting through the Grand Canyon, painting the unique vision of the Canyon from the bottom up. Sponsored by the Grand Canyon Trust, the purpose of the trip was to increase awareness of the fragile environment of the Grand Canyon. A show of the paintings produced during the trip was held at the Forbes Galleries in New York and San Francisco, the proceeds benefitting the Grand Canyon Trust.

John was born in Wichita Falls, Texas in 1953. During the first few years of his life, the family lived in a number of places in Texas, Oklahoma, and New Mexico. In 1960, they settled in Midland, Texas. It was here that John took his first art lessons, learning the basics of oil painting from local artist Arnold Leondar. After moving to Houston in 1968, John continuedto study on his own, painting the landscapes of his native southwest. He experimented with various media, finally concentrating on acrylic.

John did not formally study art in school, but concentrated on math and physics. He attended Texas A&M University and Rice University, where he earned his Ph.D. in physics in 1981. But his first love was always painting, and in 1982 he left his position as a geophysicist with an oil company to pursue art full time.

John is the author of a number of articles. These include "Landscape Painting Pitfalls" in THE ARTISTS MAGAZINE in September 1993, and "The Varied Faces of Acrylics" in the July 1995 issue. He also wrote an Art Technique column for ART MATERIALS TODAY magazine in the Sept/Oct 1994 issue titled "Capitalize on the Versatility of Acrylic". In 1997 and again in 1998 John was the juror for the National Christian Fine Arts Exhibit

John, his wife Karen and their daughters make their home in New Mexico.

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