Panoramic vistas of ancient Ozark mountains lit by the last rays of the setting sun. Texas hills and valleys covered in the brilliant hues of autumn. Crystal waters flowing through time-eroded landscapes older than Man. These scenes of the natural world are the inspiration for the realistic and intricate oil paintings of Johnny Bowen. Bowen’s award-winning and widely collected paintings reflect his own sense of wonder and awe of nature, and his techniques follow in the footsteps of the great American landscape artists of the nineteenth century. Initially self-taught, Bowen soon made contact with respected Texas artist Dalhart Windberg and became a student of his in 2000. Bowen’s representational realism is influenced by Windberg as well as by the nineteenth-century artists of the Hudson River School. My painting heroes include Durand, Church, Moran, and Bierstadt, and I aspire to create the same feeling of the sublime wonder of the natural world as did these great artists. Bowen grew up in Fort Worth, Texas, and developed a life-long friendship with a boy who lived down the street, Mike Baldwin. Mike and I spent a lot of time exploring the creeks and fields around Fort Worth, looking at protozoans through Mike’s microscope, and viewing the heavens through the telescope Mike and his Dad built. Mike was very influential in sparking my interest in science.Bowen met his future wife, Peggy, when they were students at the University of Texas, Soon after marriage and graduation, they moved to Arkansas and have lived on Sugar Mountain south of Fayetteville for over forty years. After traveling around the country, we decided that northwest Arkansas was as pretty a place as we had seen, and we moved here as soon as we could, Bowen recalls. They have two children. www.bowengallery.com