[Delta, Colorado]  SHE WAS RAISED ON A RANCH, still lives on one, and had a leg up and over the saddle by the time she was four, as soon as she was big enough to hold on to the saddle horn. For Sherry Cobb, life has been a life-long love affair with horses. She started painting and drawing them not long after her first ride. “My mom used to give me a pencil and paper to keep me busy,” she says. “Some of those paintings I did, back when I was seven or so, still exist.”

Sherry is still at it, only now “I paint from my own studio and run cattle and horses on my own ranch,” she explains. Her dad lives across the creek, and she and her dad run 198 pairs (a cow and calf is a pair) on the Uncompahgre Plateau and BLM land near Montrose and Delta. Collectively, these are Sherry’s biggest delights—horses, ranching and painting. “My favorite subjects graze just beyond my kitchen window!”

When Sherry isn’t branding calves or checking the fences, she paints. If she isn’t painting or ranching she might be showing her art work at a variety of western events. Sherry exhibited this past year in Scottsdale, Las Vegas (the Cowboy Christmas), Cheyenne and other places around the west. She enjoys meeting the people, and being in the public gives her a chance to meet her buyers, learn a little about them, and to educate the public about art and ranching.

Authenticity is important to Sherry, as is mastering the light. Working from her own sketches and photos, she develops contrast, patterns and composition. “The Queen and Her Court,” a signature piece, is an outstanding example of Sherry’s mastery over light and shadow. Her paintings tell a story that keep the viewer attached. And her skill in telling that story attests to her love of riding, ranching and horses. 

Sherry studied art at Prescott, Ariz., and for a time lived in Cody, Wyom. There Sherry exhibited her paintings in the Bighorn Gallery and painted wildlife and western art. She returned to Delta in 1995. Sherry continued exhibiting in galleries but felt there was too much control over her subject matter—and her time. “In Cody I was painting from 12-14 hours a day. I felt like I was chained to the easel,” she says. When her mother died in 1997, Sherry quit painting for two years. It wasn’t until a friend asked her to do a portrait of his four colts, that she got excited about painting again. “See Spots Run” is a running view of the horses that shows each personality in exquisite detail. Sherry credits this painting as bringing her back to art. Now she is determined to paint horses. She will not paint anything that she is not passionate about, and she is passionate about horses.

“I can’t imagine life without riding,” Sherry says, explaining that she became involved with the Dreamcatcher therapeutic riding center when a near accident driving over Kenosha Pass made her realize how important riding is to her and as a way of helping others. She donates her artwork for fund raising, and supports the center in its pursuits. Her love of horses is the focus of her art and her heart.