Steve Shelton research collection

Steve Shelton was born in Washington state in 1958. He grew up exploring the West and became fascinated with the work of cowboy artist Charles M. Russell. Shelton married Lorri (née Willard) Shelton in Yakima County, Washington in 1979; they later divorced in 2004. While married, Lorri and Steve had two children and started a cattle ranch in Prescott, Washington. He spent much of his life studying Russell’s work, as well as cowboy lifestyles, garments, and accessories. Shelton traveled across the United States and hired private researchers and photographers to capture Russell images and collection items.

Shelton’s research highlighted how Russell’s art reflected the changing culture and vast differences between cowboys in the American West. During his research Shelton drafted multiple versions of his manuscript, Pretty Shadow, which focuses on the painted and sketched works of Russell. With his work, Shelton attempts to demonstrate Russell's knowledge of cowboy cultures in the West. He explains how Russell paid attention to the changing clothing and equipment styles of American cowboys and incorporated it into his artwork.

Charles M. Russell (1864-1926) was a cowboy artist who lived and created his art in Great Falls, Montana. Charles M. Russell was born on the 19 of March, 1864 in St. Louis, Missouri to Charles Silas Russell and Mary Elizabeth Mead. He moved to Montana in 1880 at the age of 16 to pursue the life of a cowboy. He would continue this work until 1893 when he became a full-time artist. He married his wife, Nancy Cooper, in 1896 and she took over as his business manager, promoting and selling his art across the globe. They constructed a home in Great Falls, Montana in 1900. The two later adopted a son, Jack Russell, in 1916. Russell valued Western lifestyles and showed his appreciation for the West and its people through his work. During Russell’s lifetime he created over 4,000 pieces of art in a variety of mediums depicting cowboys, Indigenous and Mexican communities, the land, and its wildlife. Charles M. Russell passed away on October 24, 1926, and was buried at the Great Falls, Montana Highland Cemetery.