Harlan Whatley

Harlan D. Whatley was born in Louisiana and grew up in the Lone Star State in Austin and Dallas. When Whatley was in the first grade in Dallas, he played a chap-wearing cowboy in his school play, The Big Show. Armed with a Wild Wild West TV show lunch box, a "64 brilliant colors box "of Crayola crayons and a red Big Chief Writing Tablet, Whatley colored his way into the cowboy culture. 

Having been raised on Gunsmoke, Bonanza and The Rifleman,  Whatley enjoys neowestern, spaghetti western and western TV shows and films. The characters from these westerns inspire him to create characters via acrylic paint on canvas, pizza boxes and ceiling tin.

Whatley mostly creates drawings with colored and graphite pencils on paper as well as acrylics and oils on canvas, metal and pizza boxes. Also, he experiments with bricolage and pointillism. Each idea manifests in its own individual style and it's rare that his portraits are photorealistic. Finally, he creates abstract acrylic paintings on canvas.

Today, the American cowboy icon is alive and well in popular culture. Whatley's mission is to elevate the narrative of the American cowboy by way of his art. Whatley's style of art has been described as art brut, outlaw art and primitive. 

Education

BA, English - College of Charleston

MFA, Integrated Media Arts - Hunter College/CUNY

MA, English - University of Texas - Permian Basin

Whatley studied drawing at Midland College and color/composition at The Art Students League of New York.