Page 137 - Speedhorse November, 2018

Jim Stuckenberg was commissioned to create the Sam Thompson Memorial Foundation bronze statue depicting Thompson riding Corona Kool to victory in the 1999 Los Alamitos Million Futurity. The bronze was unveiled in the winner’s circle at Los Alamitos in 2016.
my mood. At the track, I generally work at it just a couple of hours a day.”
Obviously, Jim is often approached to do portraits of horses, but he doesn’t actively solicit such work and tries to limit it to no more that 15 percent of his time at the canvas.
“Mostly, I like to paint from my imagination,” he smiled. “At least 85 percent of what I do is something I see in my mind. I’ll have a picture in my head of a horse going up to buck and watch
him twist and gyrate until it’s just what I want, then I’ll freeze him there and paint it.”
To paint it, of course, might take a month, but the end result is a piece of art well worth having. In fact, the price range on his work runs from $50 for small sketches to $1,500 for larger works.
“There are some galleries that want me to put on a one man show,” he said. “But, that’s a long-range project because I’ve sold most of my work and they need 45 pieces to put on a show.”
Largely self-taught as an artist, Jim had some training in college but didn’t like it much because they were working pretty much in abstracts. Still, a card published by Art Made Famous, a studio in Santa Barbara, says, “Few artists since Charles Russell paint from the depth of experience and understanding which young
Stuckenberg brings to the canvas. It might be said that Jim Stuckenberg paints ‘from the seat of his pants,’ since he spent much of his
life breaking Quarter Horses . . . and in bull
riding, bareback bronco busting and roping in the rodeo circuits.”
An investment in a Stuckenberg original of limited edition, the card goes on to offer, will be both pleasurable and profitable.
Much the same can be said about what he puts into and gets out of life. His world may be soundless, but silence can be golden and those who know Jim Stuckenberg and his art are richer for this man’s quiet.
“Mostly, I like to paint from my imagination. At least 85 percent of what I do is something I see in my mind.”
Jim Stuckenberg with one of his bronze sculptures at Ruidoso in 2017.
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LOOKING BACK - AN EXCERPT FROM JULY 1977 ISSUE
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