Born in Hutchinson, Kansas, Gary Carter is a realist painter and sculptor of the contemporary and historic American West including cowboy's, mountain men, Indians and the landscape where they live or lived.

Many of his childhood trips were with his father backpacking in the Sierra Mountains of California.  He served in the Army, and then earned a BFA degree with honors from the Art Center College of Design* in Los Angeles.  He had moved to California with his family when his father took a job with Walt Disney productions.

From 1971-1972, he was the in-house illustrator for a California design studio, but a sell-out show in 1973 of his own art persuaded him to become a full-time painter.  In 1978, he won Best of Show at a Montana Historical Society exhibition.

He paints the landscape and wild animals of a remote area of Montana where he lives with his wife, Marlys, near the West Entrance of Yellowstone Park.  His former bunkhouse studio, where he acquired much insight into the life of the cowboy, is several miles from his home at Sun Ranch.

In 1982, Gary Carter was elected to membership of the Cowboy Artists of America*, and in 1986, served as President.   In CAA annual exhibitions, he received a Gold award for Drawing and Other Media in 1990 and 1997.

In 1991, he was adopted by the Crow Tribe and the Real Bird Family, and, made a member of the Big Lodge Clan, given an Indian name of "Eagle Man."  This adoption occurred at a Pow-Wow on the Crow reservation at Medicine Tail Coulee near Hardin, Montana, at a redesignation of the Little Horn Battlefield.

Sources:

"Gary Carter", Cowboy Artists of America 2009, 44th Annual Exhibition, Phoenix Art Museum

Artist Files of the Phoenix Art Museum Library