Ace Powell (1912 - 1978)
Lonely Warriors astride horses riding through cold nights past warm dimly lit cabins are often depicted in Ace Powell's paintings. He painted what he knew from tales he had heard sitting near old warriors when he was growing up upon the Blackfeet Reservation. Soon after Ace's birth in 1912 in New Mexico, his father brought the family to Montana. As an adult, Powell found work as a cowboy on a horse ranch, then as a small rancher, and eventually as wrangler for Glacier National Park Service
Apgar in Glacier Park was the gathering place for multitudes of artists drawn by the scenery, possible employment with Great Northern Railroad and sales to wealthy visiting art patrons. Bull Head Lodge, Charles M Russell's summer home near by, was focus of the developing school. One can only guess at how great artists like Russell, Joe de Yong and host of others interacted with the young teen age wrangler who was likely first trying his hands with the tools of the art trade. Here though the seed was planted that would grow and lead Powell upon his own path and would blossom into over ten thousands works of arts drawn from first hand experiences along with those learned from firelight tales.
Powell, like many others upon the frontier, followed the "Rounder" path of marriages, army service, hard drinking and cowboying, but like the lonely rider in many of his paintings whose horse is finally tied to the hitching post of a Northern Plains ranch cabin he found his home near Glacier National Park in Hungry Horse Montana .
His home here from the 1950's till the 60's was like Charles Russell's with artists coming and going including his wife Nancy McLaughlin and his own son David Powell who started his trail to a Cowboy Artist of America induction here. After a fire in 1964, Ace Powell and Nancy chose separate paths and divided. Soon after Powell partnered with Thelma Conner and spent the next 14 years traveling the art trail with her, till his death in Kalispell in 1978.
Apgar in Glacier Park was the gathering place for multitudes of artists drawn by the scenery, possible employment with Great Northern Railroad and sales to wealthy visiting art patrons. Bull Head Lodge, Charles M Russell's summer home near by, was focus of the developing school. One can only guess at how great artists like Russell, Joe de Yong and host of others interacted with the young teen age wrangler who was likely first trying his hands with the tools of the art trade. Here though the seed was planted that would grow and lead Powell upon his own path and would blossom into over ten thousands works of arts drawn from first hand experiences along with those learned from firelight tales.
Powell, like many others upon the frontier, followed the "Rounder" path of marriages, army service, hard drinking and cowboying, but like the lonely rider in many of his paintings whose horse is finally tied to the hitching post of a Northern Plains ranch cabin he found his home near Glacier National Park in Hungry Horse Montana .
His home here from the 1950's till the 60's was like Charles Russell's with artists coming and going including his wife Nancy McLaughlin and his own son David Powell who started his trail to a Cowboy Artist of America induction here. After a fire in 1964, Ace Powell and Nancy chose separate paths and divided. Soon after Powell partnered with Thelma Conner and spent the next 14 years traveling the art trail with her, till his death in Kalispell in 1978.
