Distinctly Montana Magazine

w w w . d i s t i n c t l y m o n t a n a . c o m 73 "P EOPLE THINK I AM CRAZY," SAID BILL STOCKTON ON THE SUBJECT OF THE MOST COMMON JUDGMENT OF HIM. A sign painter and commercial artist who developed creative standards that would be "beyond the pulling taste," Stockton always stayed true to his greatest and, considered by some craziest, personal loves: ranching and abstract art. Son of Fergus County home- steaders, Bill was born in 1921 and raised in Winnett and Grass Range; the Grass Range High School grad- uate left Central Montana to join the armed forces and later studied at the Minneapolis School of Art and then at the Ecole de la Grande Chaumiere in Paris. He spent most of his summer months ranching to support himself and his family of four while the winter was reserved for his other profession as an artist. "That's why you see so much white in my paintings," he told a newspaper in July 1958. From the stony, edgy silence of the plains, he dedicated himself to the avant-garde movement of painting, an abstract expressionism born out of emi- nent Pablo Picasso's Cubism. He once said that his goal as an artist was "to organize nature" and transcribe it into "the abstract, into pure geometrical form." Deviating from Picas- so's Cubism, which was enamored of the creation and use of a third-dimension illusion, Stockton ignored that dimension and transferred its multifac- eted designs into only two dimensions. He had "no heart or desire," said Stockton, to produce the con- ventionally familiar type of painting which the average viewer would understand, which he called "potboilers," though he sometimes grudgingly produced them to produce sales. Indeed, Stockton excelled in the abstract blending of supreme colors and harmonious forms. He told one art publication in 1958 that he hoped for recognition beyond "the relatively small groups of experts" who admired his art but he believed that his chances were slight. Stockton's quirky juggling of occupa- tions and unique skill set reinforced the view that he was a man of distinction. Medium-hopping at his leisure, his art spanned a range from abstract-expres- sionist paintings and metal sculptures to light fixtures and furniture. His paintings were accepted for entry in various national exhibitions and he was represented in, according to one estimate, about 200 private collec- tions in New York, Tulsa, Billings, Boz- eman, San Francisco and even in France. One Montana newspaper editor heralded Stockton as "perhaps the finest artist Montana has produced since Charlie Russell," and portrayed the shrewd individualist equally as committed to sheep ranch- ing, which, he proudly on one occasion pointed out, produced food and clothing for people. "I really have more respect for a good sheep- herder than an artist," said Stockton in 1973. "The sheepherder functions in society. I produce food and clothing for 90 people here." He died at his Grass Range home in 2002. BILL STOCKTON (1921-2002) Conversion of St. Paul Brush Rhythms in Winter Blue Formation PHOTOS COURTESY OF GILLES STOCKTON AND THE YELLOWSTONE ART MUSEUM

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