Capturing a Sense of Moment and Place
The wild mountain country has always been close to Ralph Oberg’s heart. An avid mountaineer and wilderness backpacker, he has traveled extensively in the backcountry of the Western states in search of the pristine landscape and the wildlife that live there. His art career has always focused on this love for the untrammeled country.
Raised in Colorado, Ralph spent much of his youth hiking and climbing in the mountain wilderness and a career in art was obvious at an early age. Two years at Colorado State University on an art scholarship, vocational training, and a brief stint in commercial illustration preceded the 1974 beginning of his art career. After over 10 years of growing success in the wildlife art genre, he became dissatisfied with his photographic approach and, in 1987, began to study with many of the great western plein air landscape painters.
Ralphs' work has been exhibited at the Prix de West Invitational at the National Cowboy Museum, The Masters at the Autry National Center, The Quest for the West at the Eiteljorg Museum, The Buffalo Bill Art Show at the Buffalo Bill Historical Center, The Western Visions at the National Museum of Wildlife Art, the Night of Artists at the Briscoe Museum, the Brinton Museum, and the Steamboat Springs Art Museum.
He received the Wilson Hurley Memorial Award for Landscape at the 2020 Prix de West show, the California Art Clubs' Gold Medal at the 2014 Gold Medal show, the 2019 Museum Purchase Award at the Briscoe Museum, the 2012 Trustees Purchase Award at the Western Visions show, and the 1988 William Weiss Purchase Award for the Buffalo Bill Historical Center. Also at the Buffalo Bill Art Show he has been honored with the 1992 and 1996 Juror's Choices, and the 2001 and 2002 Best Painting Awards.
Ralph and his wife, artist Shirley Novak, often paint on location the wild and roadside scenes they both love. Upon returning to their Montrose, Colorado home and studio, they produce larger works using these outdoor paintings as reference material.
