If you are looking for a sculptor who creates western and wildlife bronzes of the great outdoors, including ranching, rodeo, hunting and horses; Ken Mayernik is your artist!
At the age of four or five, Ken Mayernik remembers horses rolling in the pastures and deer feeding on the hay fields of his father’s central Montana ranch. He also remembers spending hours on end drawing and sketching.
Much of Ken’s artwork reflects his life growing up in rural Montana, and the life he lives today. An avid outdoorsman, Ken likes to hunt and fish, spend time at his cabin, or ride and pack his horses into the mountains. Still involved with the family ranch where he grew up, Ken occasionally helps with work such as branding, haying and gathering cattle. He earned a bachelors degree in art from the College of Great Falls. From there, Ken went on to teach high school art. He has worked in a bronze foundry, and has also packed trail crews into the Bob Marshall Wilderness for the Forest Service. His art is a representation and expression of his life experiences.
Ken’s creative pursuits have gone from those early ranch sketches to acceptance and participation in some well-known western art shows and auctions in the United States and Canada, including National Finals Rodeo Cowboy Christmas, Safari Club International, the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation National Conventions, the American Royal Western Art Show and Sale, the Mountain Oyster Club Art Show and the "Empire 100" Show. A couple of Ken's regular shows are the C.M. Russell Auction and Exhibitors Show in Great Falls, and the Calgary Stampede in Calgary.
His work has won Best of Show and People’s Choice awards. Significant awards through the years include 1993 and 2009 Calgary Stampede Collectors Choice Three Dimensional; 1999,2006 and 2008 Calgary Stampede Artists Choice Three Dimensional; 2000 and 2009 Calgary Stampede Juror’s Choice Three Dimensional; 2009 Artists Studios Best of Show Three Dimensional; and two Calgary Stampede Best Sales Salon awards. His bronze trophies were chosen and commissioned for the Calgary Stampede Chuckwagon Races and Rodeo Events. Chuckwagon Champion, Chuckwagon Average Winner, Chuckwagon Winning Outriders, and Novice Saddle Bronc and were awarded from 2003 through 2007. In 2009 his work was awarded the Sculpture Catagory Winner at the American Royal Western Art Show and Auction in Kansas City.
Ken’s art stands on its own merits with top artists in the west. His sculptures are alive, enticing, well designed, creatively thought out and exciting. They document his upbringing as well as the ups and downs of life. “Artistic ability is given by a greater force, and it’s my responsibility to train and nurture this gift, and invite others to experience my creative interpretations.”
You are invited to experience Ken’s work.
