Kenneth Riley (1919-2015)

Born in Kansas, Kenneth Riley attended the Kansas City Art Institute, where he was a student of Thomas Hart Benton. He eventually became a highly successful illustrator and, in the late 1960s, was commissioned by the United States Park Service to create several paintings of Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks. “Those trips,” he said, “convinced me that the West was where I wanted to live and work.” This commission inspired Riley to become a realist painter of the Old West, concentrating mainly on Native American subjects. His works are included in the permanent collections of The White House and the Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C. (CowboyArtistsofAmerica.com)