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Watercolor
Dimensions: 19.75 x 29
Purchased through a National Endowment for the Arts grant, 1978

The Artwork

Bill Strain considers himself a realist in his approach to painting. This watercolor from 1978 originated from an idea he had while driving through Kansas and seeing an abandoned headboard by the side of the road.

The Artist

Bill Strain was born in California then raised on a farm in Oklahoma. He received an art degree from Oklahoma State University. Strain is a painter of rural life and nature, with a nostalgia feeling that brings the memory of days gone by. Strains big influences in art were Andrew Wyeth, Winslow Homer, and Oklahoma artists Cletus Smith and Milton Louis. Strain calls his style of painting "realist style." His 1978 transparent watercolor Pop Fletcher’s Bedstead was an idea he came up with when traveling to Kansas when he saw an abandoned headboard by the side of the road. Strain was a founder of the McAlester Art and Humanities Council.