2009 Featured Artist, BILL NEBEKER

The San Luis Obispo County Cattlemen’s Association is very honored to announce that the highly respected Western Artist Bill Nebeker has been selected as this year’s Featured Artist for their Nineteenth Annual Western Art Show and Sale to be held at the Paso Robles Event Center in California.
As a member of the Cowboy Artists of America since 1978, as well as an invited artist at the Prix de West, Autry’s Masters of the American West, and several other prestigious art shows around the country, Bill is best known for his detailed, accurate and dignified portrayals of the working cowboy and ranching life. He also authentically sculpts Native Americans with their unique tribal clothing and weapons.

  • Bill Nebeker began sculpting characters of the American West in 1964 after he was mesmerized by seeing the art of George Phippen in Prescott, Arizona.
  • Gold, Silver, and Best of Show awards have been awarded to him several times, and his bronze sculptures are in the permanent collections of the Booth Museum of Western Art, Cheyenne Old West Museum, Eiteljorg Museum of Western Art, Palms Springs Desert Museum, Pearce Western Art Collection, Phippen Museum of Western Art, Phoenix Art Museum and the Rockwell Museum of Western Art.
  • Bill has also been commissioned by several cities around the country to create larger than life sized bronze statues to honor heroes of the old West and modern law enforcement officers. In 2008 he is honored to serve his third term as President of the Cowboy Artists of America in his 30th year with that organization.
 Western sculpture artist Bill Nebeker
Born on a farm in southern Idaho, he moved to a small Arizona mountain town in the 1950’s. For a short time his father worked at a local ranch and Bill was influenced by the cowboys who have become his friends, and their way of life, the soul of his sculptures.
Bill Nebeker at work on sculpture
Bill Nebecker at work on one of his sculptures

See Nebeker's sculptures at Trailside Galleries in Scottsdale and Jackson Hole, Texas Art Gallery in Dallas, Claggett/Rey Gallery in Vail, Mountain Spirit Gallery in Prescott, Gallery at Midlane in  Houston & Gold Nugget Gallery in Wickenburg.  His sculptures are included in the Cowboy Artists of America Sale in Phoenix, Prix de West in Oklahoma City, Autry Museum's Masters of the American West and the Cheyenne Frontier Days Western Art Show.

In the 30 years of his strong and prestigious career, Bill has had stories about his life and work featured in Arizona Highways, Art of the West, Southwest Art, Cowboys and Indians, Western Horseman, Horse and Rider, Phoenix Home and Garden and Persimmon Hill.

His work is in the collections of the Eiteljorg Museum, National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum, Old West Museum in Cheyenne, Booth Western Art Museum, Museum of Western Art in Kerrville, Phoenix Art Museum, Phippen Museum in Prescott and Desert Caballeros Museum in Wickenburg.  well as many of the prestigious art shows and auctions throughout the West. - biography courtesy of Bill Nebeker