Self-taught Western and wildlife artist Larry Fanning was born in Kansas in 1938 and attended Kansas State University. Always interested in art, Fanning began working as a commercial illustrator for the Boeing Company in California and spent 17 years as a nondenominational minister. Shortly before moving to Colorado, in 1986, Fanning revived his art career. Drawn by the powerful iconography of mountains and changing seasons, Fanning began to paint his moving and beautiful scenes of the West. Collectors quickly began snapping up his artworks, and his paintings appear in collections throughout the United States, Canada, Europe, and South America. Fanning says of the Western inspiration for his work, "In its richly endowed land, its wildlife, and in the dreams of its people, there pulses an energy that is sacred and life-giving." Fanning died in 2014.