Popular western artist Bill Bender dies at 97

Oro Grande resident's paintings were collected by President Eisenhower, J. Edgar Hoover

Bill Bender, considered one of the few original and last plein air western artists who captured the beauty of the American desert, died Jan. 5 on his 97th birthday as a result of a fall at his farm in Oro Grande. (Courtesy of Ann Japenga)

By Rene Ray De La Cruz
The Daily Press

ORO GRANDE — Bill Bender, a working cowboy and western artist whose artwork was purchased by a President Dwight Eisenhower and other political leaders, has died.

Known as “Cowboy Bill” by those who knew him best, Bender died Jan. 5 on his 97th birthday as a result of a fall at his farm in Oro Grande, according to his wife, Helen Bender.

“He was a good man who worked hard and always kept moving,” Helen Bender, 83, told the Daily Press on Wednesday. “We were married for almost 60 years, then we moved to Oro Grande from the Los Angeles area.”

Helen Bender said the couple continued to live in the same house, an abandoned tavern, that they began fixing up back in the 1950s, “when there was nothing out here but dirt.”

“Bill was quite the accomplished artist and he, his wife and his mother were the nicest folks around,” said Joe Manner, a longtime resident of Oro Grande. “When I delivered mail, I never had to put it in their box because one of them would always come out and greet me.”

Those in the art world knew Bender for his paintings of desert landscapes, horses, cattle and ranch scenes; and illustrated stories and written work. As a stuntman, the cowboy began unleashing his artistic side while recovering from an injury suffered during a rodeo ride, his wife said.

Bender was considered one of the few original and last plein air western artists who captured the beauty of the American desert, according to many online art sites. Plein air paintings are created outdoors, with the painter reproducing the actual visual conditions seen at the time of the painting.

Bender’s friend, Mark Cliath, said some of the collectors of Bender’s work included FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover, Supreme Court Justice Tom Clark and President Eisenhower, who was surrounded by bodyguards when he visited the farm on Old Highway 66 for some painting pointers.

Over the century, Bender was one of many artists who would travel to the lower High Desert to find the perfect location to paint. The Oro Grande artist would often camp out under a cottonwood tree and survive on grapefruit while he worked on his masterpiece, according writer Ann Japenga.

Japenga, a Palm Springs writer specializing in stories about the California deserts and the West who operates the website www.californiadesertart.com, said Bender was good friend and the “poster boy for longevity.”

“Bill was into holistic medicine and he was the perfect picture of health,” Japenga told the Daily Press on Wednesday. “He was 100-percent cowboy, but still very caring and kind.”

From movie stuntman to a lineman who traveled by horse to string utility line from Kernville to Lone Pine, Japenga said Bill Bender lived an adventurous life.

“I just got a card from him and his handwriting was perfect,” Japenga said. “He was a man who left his mark on the art world and will truly be missed.”

Bender, who admired the work of artist James Swinnerton and his lifestyle, began taking “sketching trips” with Swinnerton on unpaved roads in the late ‘40s. Bender said the two would often park their car on high ground in Arizona, throw their sleeping bags near their car and cook steaks over an open fire, Japenga said.

“Bill’s artwork hangs in big buildings in San Francisco, New York and Los Angeles, yet he lived a simple life in a house that was probably in the family for over a hundred years,” Manner said. “They don’t make people like Bill anymore.”

Helen Bender said the family will have a private ceremony to celebrate her husband's life.

Indian Wells builds new monument to artist Carl Bray

Built in a park-like setting, the Carl G. Bray Smoke Tree Painter monument on Highway 111 in Indian Wells includes six panels – five of which detail the city’s past and one devoted to Bray.
(Sherry Barkas/The Desert Sun)

Sherry Barkas
The Desert Sun

Driving east on Highway 111 through Indian Wells, one can’t help but notice the Carl G. Bray Smoke Tree Painter monument, with its rock walls, colorful display panels and the palette sign near Miles Avenue.

Dedicated in November, the tribute to internationally known artist Carl Bray is situated where his art gallery and the home he built once stood.

“The monument speaks to the history of Indian Wells … and to Carl Bray,” said Jan Holmlund, advisory committee chair for the city’s Historic Preservation Foundation.

The monument was built by the city at a cost of $84,617 in a park-like setting, that includes six panels – five of which detail the city’s past and one devoted to Bray.

The artist built his home himself in the early 1950s along the edge of what is now Highway 111. The Oklahoma-born painter, who worked as a brakeman for Southern Pacific Railroad, was living in Los Angeles at the time but found the desert landscape irresistible as an artist.

He and his wife, Luella, bought the property for $1,000. At the time, their neighbors included “a few cabins, a dance hall, two small grocery stores, two gas stations, a café and … a rattlesnake pen located just across the highway,” preservation foundation President Adele Ruxton wrote in a short historical biography of Bray.

As the city grew and resorts and country clubs went up around them, the Brays held on to their “little homemade house” until 1999, when they sold it and moved to Banning.

Bray’s gallery was a gathering spot for a group of artists who came to be known as the Smoke Tree School.

Under the new owner, the Indian Wells property fell into foreclosure and the city bought it in 2008. It was declared unsafe and demolished in 2010 amidst protests by preservationists and fans of Bray’s work.

His home was the last structure left on that historic site that was at one point also a stagecoach stop.

“It’s the last piece of that village,” Holmlund said.

“This monument and panels speak to so many of the moments in history and early settlement” of Indian Wells, Historical Preservation Foundation member Ann Japenga said.

The original sign marking the landmark spot is displayed in City Hall along with pieces of Bray’s artwork.

Bray’s paintings are prized today “for their blue collar mysticism, lonely freight trains and glowing smoke trees,” the monument states.

His artwork is mystical yet “very precise; detailed,” Holmlund said.

While most of his paintings are of desert landscape and smoke trees, he painted in a variety of genres, including a rare seascape he was commissioned to do, Holmlund said.

Holmlund, Ruxton, Japenga and foundation Secretary Sharon Devine gathered recently at Ruxton’s Indian Wells home to talk of the artist they knew and the importance of making sure he and the city’s rich history aren’t forgotten.

All four women knew Bray and described him as laid back, usually wearing suspenders and speaking with an Oklahoma accent – a working class man who wasn't the typical Indian Wells resident.

“His ordinariness” is what Holmlund most liked about Bray. “He was just a friendly, neighborly, compassionate person.”

He was always ready to help others and made people feel at home in his gallery and his house, the women said.

“His home was your home,” said Ruxton, who has binders full of notes Bray wrote, each of them in envelopes he would mark with a special drawing. “I think anyone who met Carl felt like they had known Carl a long time.”

“He had tremendous appeal,” Japenga said. “He had a very calm and accepting manner. He was more accepting of his house being torn down than we were.”

Ruxton was at Bray’s home in Banning the day he died – July 23, 2011. Luella Bray had died three years earlier.

“We went to see him,” she said, but were met by a doctor who thought they were family and told them of Bray’s passing.

Bray’s hat, easel and paint brushes are on display at the Historical Society and Museum of Palm Desert, where some of his paintings are also for sale.

“With every painting he told a story,” Japenga said.