Jim Staples lives on a small ranch in the community of Whitesboro just outside of Gainesville, Texas where he raises bucking bred cattle and starts colts. His studio is located at the ranch which Jim claims is the perfect environment for inspiration. Having been a bull rider in both the National Intercollegiate Rodeo Association and the Professional Rodeo Cowboy Association, his career took a turn upon retirement. “While attending Texas A&M and studying animal science, I was going to a lot of rodeos and my heart was really not into school. I decided to hang it up and ride bulls full time professionally. While I was riding my interest in art became a real passion and I realized this is what I wanted to do after retiring from rodeo. I had already been working and exhibiting as a sculptor in my off time and decided to return to school for formal training.”

Jim attended South Eastern Oklahoma State University where he studied painting under the tutelage of painter Greg Reimen. “Working as a sculptor, I had not painted until seeing Greg’s work; however upon seeing his paintings I was hooked.” Having received a B.A. from SOSU and with some encouragement from the faculty, Jim chose to attend Graduate school at the University of North Texas where he later received a Master of Fine Arts. “My graduate experience was unique in that I was exposed to a wide variety of art and artist. During Graduate school I was encouraged to pull from my experience as a bull rider as inspiration for my art. I decided to take this advice which led to numerous large scale mixed media sculptures that were a result of both personal experience and research from bull cults such as Minoan, Mesopotamian, Crete and Egyptian. It was a challenging and rewarding body of work; however it was time to move on.”

Soon after leaving the University of North Texas Jim’s art evolved into what he is most known for today. “Having exhausted my current research, my interest and life experience began to turn as well. I became intrigued with historic working ranches and stumbled upon the horsemanship movement that draws from vaquero methods. Also, I had a colt that was at that time beyond my ability to “get going”, so I signed up for a colt starting clinic with horseman and clinician Chico Bond of Sherman, TX. I began an apprenticeship with Chico that still exists today. We have also forged quite a friendship. Chico uses the vaquero style of horsemanship and thus began my new research resulting in my current work”

Jim’s current work represents this approach to horsemanship as the art form it is. Paintings and Sculpture depict the renaissance of horseman represented by those such as Chico Bond, Buck Brannaman, Tom Dorrence and Ray Hunt. Jim describes his work as “documentary” because the people he sculpts and paints are real people, places, horses, ranchers and horseman. “I work in a style often referred to as naturalistic realism. While I work from photographs that I take, I am not interested in reproducing a photograph in its detail, however accuracy in representing the dress, methods and gear is very important in my work. It is in this that makes these ranches and this way of horsemanship truly unique. Also, there are regional variations in dress, methods and gear that one must be aware of.” When people look at his paintings and sculpture he hopes people come away with a sense of what it’s like to be a horseman or in a real working ranch environment. Very few people realize these horsemanship methods and way of life still exist. Jim’s work assures us they do, while Jim states “you just can’t see them from the road”