"Above all things, the Plainsmen had to have an instinct for direction. I never had a compass in my life; I was never lost." Charles Goodnight, Texas Rancher. In the spirit of having a direction in life, western artist John Ford Clymer was one of those gentlemen of the West who knew instinctively where he was going. Born in 1907 in the small western coast town of Ellensburg, Washington, John grew up fascinated by the natural beauty of the Cascade Mountain foothills. His parents, John and Elmira (Ford) Clymer, nurtured his love and appreciation for the natural world. As owners of a greenhouse and florist business, young John spent many hours assisting in planting, growing, and harvesting plants and flowers native to the Pacific Northwest.
Academic pursuits were not young John’s strong suit; he spent much of his time doodling on any available paper rather than attending to the information dispersed by his adult instructors. When not doodling, John loved to study and draw the work from the top magazine illustrators popular at the time, such as McClure's, Colliers and Harper's Weekly, and the Saturday Evening Post. As a high school freshman, John signed up for correspondence art lessons with the Federal Schools of Minneapolis. It wasn't long before John was designing local advertisements for the Ellensburg rodeo, and a couple of years later, after purchasing a Colt pistol, he sold two pen and ink drawings of the gun to Colt Firearms for use in their national advertising.
Now, John doubled down on his pursuit to become an illustrator. After graduating high school, John secured employment as an illustrator for a mail-order catalog in Vancouver, British Columbia. He spent the subsequent eight years illustrating for various Canadian magazines and advertising firms while attending art classes in the evening at the Vancouver School of Decorative and Applied Arts. As his reputation and workload grew, John recognized the most profitable work was on America's East Coast. In 1930, he relocated to Wilmington, Delaware, to attend the Wilmington Academy of Art. It was during this time John met N.C. Wyeth is the man he credits as the most significant influence on his career.
In 1932, John married his childhood sweetheart, Doris Estelle Schnebly. At this time, the United States was in the worst year of the Great Depression, and art jobs were hard to come by. Undeterred, the couple returned to Canada, where John resumed his work as an illustrator. During this time, he exhibited his paintings with the Ontario Society of Artists and the Royal Canadian Academy of Art. In 1936, the couple returned to the United States, intending to study with Harvey Dunn at the Grand Central Art School. However, they purchased a home in Westport, Connecticut, to be near the New York art market. For the next thirty years, John Clymer made a secure living as an illustrator for magazines and commercial accounts. His work appeared in Field and Stream, Tru, American Sportsman, Cosmopolitan, and Good Housekeeping, to name a few.
During World War II, John and his friend, cowboy artist Tom Lovell joined the Marine Corps, and the two became the illustrators for Leatherneck and the Marine Corps Gazette. After the war, John returned to commercial illustration. During this time, his best-known work became over 80 covers for the Saturday Evening Post, illustrating the American scene between 1947 and 1962. Other notable clients during this time were White House Scotch Whiskey, The Pennsylvania Railroad, and the Chrysler Corporation.
By the close of the 1960s, the work for illustrators was beginning to fade. During this time, the Clymer family traveled in the West; Doris was a Western history enthusiast who collected information and studied the areas the family visited. John credits his wife for urging him to turn his attention to painting historical subjects. This was a turning point in his career, as he dedicated himself to capturing the essence of the American West's early history. By 1970, the family moved to Teton Village near Jackson Hole, Wyoming, where they built a home and studio—the long, snowy winters were perfect for John to develop a concentrated painting routine. During the summers, John and Doris traveled the trails of the early pioneers, gathering material so John could produce the utmost authenticity in his painting of the American West's early history.
In 1976, John Clymer received the Prix de West Award from the Academy of Western Art. This was a significant recognition of his contribution to the Western art scene. He also received medals from the Cowboy Artists of America, Western Artist of the Year from the National Wildlife Art Collectors Society, and the Gold Medal in Oil from the National Academy of Western Art. In 1988, John received the Rungius Medal from the National Museum of Wildlife Art. He was also named to the New York Society of Illustrators Hall of Fame and the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts. His work not only garnered awards and accolades but also inspired a new generation of Western artists.
Since John Clymer's death in 1989, residents in Ellensburg, Washington, along with friends and relatives of the Clymer family, have helped establish the Clymer Museum and Gallery in the Artist's hometown. In 2024, Western Spirit, Scottsdale Museum of the West accepted Arizona native Eddie Bashas’s John Clymer painting collection into their permanent collection. In the end, John never lost his way, compass or not. He created an essential and authentic documentation of forgotten places and historical events that will now be remembered because he painted them.
Website: www.clymermuseum.org | www.westernspirit.org
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