Brian Norwood is a painter and sculptor best known for his monumental metal sculpture, “The Trail Ahead…” near Jal, New Mexico. This depiction of a cattle drive includes 17 figures of cattle and mounted cowboys created from steel plate. It stretches for 400 feet, with cowboys reaching over 20 feet tall. The sculpture has appeared in New Mexico Magazine and a variety of other publications throughout the country. Photographs of “The Trail Ahead…” were a featured part of the 2004 exhibit “SoQ: Contemporary Art in Southern New Mexico” at the Museum of Fine Arts in Santa Fe.
Brian has lived in Southeastern New Mexico most of his life. He was born in Big Lake, Texas in 1957 and has lived since 1964 in Jal. His acrylic paintings, pencil drawings and pen-and-inks have been exhibited throughout Southeastern New Mexico and West Texas, and are in the collections of New Mexico Junior College, College of the Southwest, the late Rep. Joe Skeen, and Western singer Michael Martin Murphy, who referred to Brian as “…one of our great Southeastern New Mexico artists.”
A lover of history, Brian’s subject matter is often related to the history of the American West. His painting “Men of the Tenth” depicts the Buffalo Soldiers who helped settle New Mexico and West Texas, and was awarded Best of Show and People’s Choice awards at the Llano Estacado Art Association Fall Show in Hobbs. His latest projects include a life-sized metal silhouette of a World War II B-17 bomber at the site of the former Hobbs Army Air Field in Hobbs, New Mexico, as well as a cowboy silhouette for the Western Heritage Museum and Lea County Cowboy Hall of Fame in Hobbs. His future plans include a three-dimensional sculpture paying tribute to New Mexico astronaut and moonwalker Harrison Schmitt, and expanding “The Trail Ahead…” to span the north-south length of Lea County —some 120 miles!
