Biography
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.
Age 3 or 4
Family farmhouse
Family tractor, my first driving lessons
My Uncle "Buck" and his hogs ( plenty of ham and bacon at home )
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.
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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.
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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. He is 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.
Calf Scramble
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 Wimberly, Texas
Gary Cheatham is an artist from Gruene, Texas