Cynthia Rigden at Pitzer's Fine Arts

Also View Cynthia Rigden's Indoor Sculptures

Cynthia Rigden grew up surrounded by horses and cattle on an 8,000 acre ranch that has been in her family since 1902. Her roots in Arizona and the West are deep. Yet, she doesn’t call herself a Western Artist; rather, she is an artist who comes from the West!

Rigden’s long association with horses and cattle give her work an edge. From her daily contact with animals, she knows they have distinct personalities and she tries to reflect these differences in her art - - both sculpture and paintings. “I like to catch the subtle attitude of the horse, but I don’t try to romanticize them. I believe the gracefulness and the form of the horse speak for themselves. And if I can capture that in my work, then I’ve captured the essence of the animal.”

In a 1997 profile in Farm and Ranch Living magazine, she said, “During the course of a typical day, I might see a cow pony or a big old Longhorn doing something that makes me want to capture it in bronze (or a painting). Of course, I often have to do a lot of research to get all the details right. Details are very important. Folks who know horses and cattle will see right away if I get something wrong.”

With Cynthia’s heritage and her love of the animals she paints and sculpts, I believe she is getting it right!