A native Texan, Gary first saw life in Hill County where his grandparents settled in the late 1800’s. He hustled through his boyhood days in San Antonio, home of the Alamo. He never gave up his country upbringing, spending long hot summers on the family farm, raising animals, riding, herding, branding, plowing, chopping cotton and baling hay. Whatever needed to be done, he did.
In his early twenties he gave rodeoing a try, mostly in small town arenas from Bandera to Kennedale. “Riding the Rough Stock” as the saying goes. A taste of arena dirt, getting busted up, broke and much wiser for it, he moved on to a long and enjoyable business career.
His love of all things western and the “cowboy way” gave him an appreciation of simpler times and life as it once was. A quiet man, he would tell you “Life doesn’t need to be quite so complicated”. While receiving no formal training, his rustic self-taught style has served well as he renewed an interest in painting in 2012. He has tried his hand at vintage and western art, animals, landscape and still-life.
Retired and focusing on his art, family and community service. He now lives in Gruene, Texas which sits along the banks of Texas’ treasured Guadalupe River. He and his wife Mary Sue, are actively involved at Cross Lutheran Church. Gary is a Life Member of the San Antonio Livestock Show and Rodeo. He currently is a volunteer for the Let’s Rodeo Ball Committee, and previously served on the Calf Scramble Committee. An active participant in the “We’re All In” committee for the Comal County Junior Livestock Association. He and his wife quietly support many local and community charity organizations in Comal County and New Braunfels.
A former member of the New Braunfels Art League, he has been a gallery artist at Gallery RK in Gruene Lake Village, The River’s Edge Gallery in Kerrville, Texas and has exhibited work as a guest artist for Art on 12 in Wimberley, Texas
Gary Cheatham is an artist from Gruene, Texas
Degrees earned from the Cowboy School of Hard Knocks:
BCL (Bachelor of Cowboy Learnin’)
- Always drink upstream from the herd.
- Don’t squat with your spurs on!
- If you find yourself in a hole, quit diggin’!
- That poor boy don’t know “come here” from “sic’em”!
- Wisdom and schoolin’ ain’t the same things.
- Don’t go lookin’ for trouble if it ain’t botherin’ you none.
- The only reason to ride a mean bull or bronc is to meet a nurse!
MCL (Master of Cowboy Learnin’)
- Don’t let your yearnings get ahead of your earnings.
- Just because you can, don’t mean you should.
- The quickest way to double your money is to fold it over and put it back in your pocket.
- It’s better to be a has been, than a never was.
- Just ’cause trouble comes calling, doesn’t mean you have to offer it a place to sit down.
- If you give up, how will you know you can’t?
- It’s better to keep your mouth shut and look foolish, than to open it and prove everyone right.
- Live a good, honorable life. Then when you get older and think back, you’ll enjoy it more the second time around!
- Sometimes when life throws you a curve, you have to set your spurs, take a deep seat, and just let her buck!