R. (Bob) Stem was raised and educated in a small rural town in northern
California. He received his B. A. degree in art from California State
University, San Jose in 1968. After three years of service in the army, which
included a year in beautiful southeast Asia, he attended California State
University, Fresno, and received an M.A. degree in art in 1972. Bob spent the
next few years operating his own pottery business in Phoenix, then moved to
Montana in 1980. After picking up another degree in education in 1982, he
started teaching in the Montana Public School system. He was the art and
photography teacher in Deer Lodge, Montana, for twenty years. During that
time Bob became interested in horses and worked five summers for an
outfitter, taking people into the Bob Marshall Wilderness.
His interest in horses and ranch life continues and is expressed in his art work
which deals primarily with present day ranch life, the people who live it, the
land and the wildlife with whom they share it. Most of the portraits that he has
done in the past few years are neighbor ranchers and their family members.
In recent years Bob has started offering limited edition prints of his drawings
and has shown his paintings in national shows including shows with the Oil
Painters of America, Montana Watercolor Society, Salon International 2002
and others.
Bob is currently represented by the folllowing galleries and outlets:
Shadow Mountain Gallery, Jackson, WY
Big Fork Art & Cultural Center, Big Fork, MT
Wagon Wheel, Drummond, MT
A. Hooker's Gallery, Great Falls, MT
Rouge Blanc Gallery, Newburg, OR
Gallery inquiries welcome
