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Artist Bio |
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| Gary D. Rankin, a.k.a. “GD”, was born and raised in south Texas where
much of the land is still wild and the people are always friendly. Gary
comes from a long line of avid outdoorsmen and was taught early in life to
study, respect and honor all things in nature. Learning to ride before he
could walk gave him a special admiration for horses, so it’s no surprise
that his first acrylic paintings were of wild mustangs. He began drawing
and sketching at a very young age. Since various small orphaned wild
animals were raised by the family, they naturally became companions and
favorite subjects. Gary's artistic experience from childhood to present includes painting with acrylics, enamels and watercolors. He has always enjoyed working with other mediums such as charcoal, clay, leather and pastels to name a few. Applying his skills to all areas of art and experimenting with different ideas helps keep thing fresh and exciting, he says. Having over twenty years in the vast commercial art industry, in 1996 Gary started working with watercolors and began his venture into the “Fine Arts”. As reflected in his paintings, he gets a lot of his inspiration from wildlife and nature. He says his “country boy” upbringing and his commercial art backgrounds (from business cards to billboards) have both contributed to his abilities and the styles he enjoys painting. ”Living in the country, doing farm and ranch work and traipsing around in the woods hunting with dogs all of my life with my father, along with learning the many skills necessary to make a living in the commercial art business have all played a part in what and how I paint today.” Gary relates. Starting out as a youngster in a small silk-screen shop printing t-shirts, GD worked his way into the position of designing layouts, logos and various other creative advertising projects. Paving his way through early life he mastered the Screen Printing trade and soon advanced to more challenging areas, such as murals and the Sign Art Industry. "I have painted custom pictorials on location on a multitude of surfaces ranging in size from 2' x 3' all the way up to 25' x 75'. Sometimes working at heights over 100' above the ground. That alone can be a challenge." Working with such a large variety of mediums and platforms, GD has developed a wide range of interests in the field. His work has appeared on national billboards, hunting videos, hunting & fishing magazines and on the cover of the Dogo Club’s Dogo Domain. As hobbies, he enjoys photography, computer graphics, surf fishing for shark and wild boar hunting with his family and their Dogos. He also plays the twelve string acoustic and bass guitars as well as the Native American flute and drums. Gary’s paintings are showing in two galleries in the Dallas / Ft. Worth area, one of the galleries is in the Dallas Love Field Airport.
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