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"We are our past, visit it with me..."
As a pocketbook cover artist he painted covers for many authors such
as Zane Grey,Will Henryand Louis L’Amour including the original
cover for McMurtry’s Lonesome Dove |
The Artist Shannon Stirnweis
Born in Portland Oregon in 1931, his ambitions fixed on becoming an artist
while in grade school. This interest, although sometimes detoured by sports
and studies, continued through high school and a year at the University
of Oregon. Winning the American Institute of Graphic Design Scholarship.
He completed his education with five years at the Art Center College of
Design in Los Angeles.
After graduation he served two years in the army as an illustrator in
Germany. In his spare time he was able to paint more than thirty portraits
of the officers and men which paid for a camera which allowed him to place
third in an all army photography show.Most of his leave time was spent
at European museums in a rare opportunity to study the works of the masters.
Discharged in the late fifties,he found making a living painting for the
galleries was difficult,but the illustration market in the East was still
quite healthy.In New York City he progressed from an agency sketch job
to free lancing adventure pulps and children's books to slick magazines
such as Argosy, Boy's Life,Time,Show,Outdoor Life and Field and Stream.He
did covers for virtually all the New York paperback publishers and illustrated
over thirty children's books.His advertising clients varied from pharmaceuticals,to
industrials to movies to stamps.
After serving two years as President of the Society of Illustrators in
New York City he followed the lead of many former illustrators and entered
the field of gallery painting.
He and his wife Regina were married in 1958.They have three sons,Kevin,Kirk
and Eric all are into the arts,Kirk is painting the historical West in
New Hampshire.
He is represented in the permanent collections of the U.S. Dept.of the
Interior, U.S. Air Force, U.S.Army Historical Museum. U.S.Coast Guard,
Leaning Tree, Marriott, Grumbacher, Rumley, C.B.S., Burt Reynolds, California
Federal Savings, University of Texas(El Paso), University of Wyoming,
New Britain Museum and the Pipin Museum. He has participated in shows
at the Hunterton Art Center, the New York Historical Society and the Smithsonian.
His biography appears in the" Illustrator in America 1880-1990",
"Contemporary Western Artists", "200 Years of American
Illustration", and Marquis, "Who's Who in America". Shannon
currently resides in New Ipswich, New Hampshire where he finds inspiration
everyday to keep painting.
Shannon Stirnweis
116 Perry Road
New Ipswich, NH 03071
603-878-9841
Email: stirnwe@aol.com
Copyright © 2011 Shannon Stirnweis
All Rights Reserved.
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