Dan Mieduch, a representational oil painter, is best known for his depictions of both historic and contemporary cowboys. He has lived and worked in Arizona since 1975.

Born in Detroit, Michigan, Mieduch began drawing at the age of seven. During high school, he attended evening art classes and began working with both oils and watercolors. His father owned a bar, where Mieduch sold his early wildlife paintings to patrons for forty dollars each.

In 1969, Mieduch earned a Bachelor of Science degree in industrial design from the University of Michigan. He later served for eighteen months in the Army Medical Corps as a command artist in the Panama Canal Zone.

After his military service, Mieduch worked for a commercial illustration studio in Detroit before deciding to pursue a career as a fine artist. Drawn to what he viewed as a simpler era, he focused his work on the early twentieth-century American frontier. He eventually relocated to Phoenix, Arizona, where he established gallery representation and built a successful career as a Western painter.

Source: Southwest Art, February 2001.