From an early age, Sharon Standridge was a good listener.
“I loved hearing stories of my family history,” she recalls. “My grandfather had at one time performed in the rodeo, where he was known as Tex Brown. His children—my dad and all his siblings—were billed as The Little Buckaroos, the World’s Youngest Rodeo Performers. So growing up, I heard those recollections, as well as my dad’s memories of his growing up during the Great Depression.”

As a result of hearing these accounts, Standridge developed a deep respect for the courage, determination and perseverance that were the stock-in-trade of preceding generations.
Ultimately, her appreciation for the people and places of days gone by found its voice through her art. “I am drawn to painting the American West, especially the nostalgic era of the 1890s,” she explains. “I prefer scenes that show those men and women of the era hard at work, doing their everyday tasks and chores. I find myself inspired by their courage in the face of adversity and by their willingness to settle new territories with a spirit of adventure.” Grounded in reality, however, her canvases renew insight into the labor-intensive lifestyle of the Old West. A young girl draws drinking water in a bucket, a cowhand totes a stray calf back to the herd, and a woman bathes her baby in a river—all simple scenes of people in motion during a time when life was simpler, yet far more physically demanding.
Born in Colorado, Standridge spent her early years in the shadow of the Rocky Mountains, then later moved to Nebraska with her family. During elementary school, her teachers submitted her artwork to the local county fair where she received awards, and even won a regional honor from a local television station. By high school, however, her teachers were no longer taking her art to the fair. Instead, they were commissioning her to do pieces for their own enjoyment.
Immediately after graduating from high school Standridge married, and within a few years was busy as a wife and the mother of a young son. Her husband, David, didn’t want her to walk away from her talent, so to encourage her he purchased a set of oil paints as a gift. From that point forward, Standridge gradually wove her artwork back into her life until it evolved into a full-fledged career. In the process, her paintings have garnered recognition and won numerous awards at exhibitions across the nation.
In recent years, she has been honored by participation in invitational sales at prestigious venues, such as the C.M. Russell Museum in Great Falls, Montana; the Desert Caballeros Museum in Wickenburg, Arizona; and the Briscoe Museum in San Antonio, Texas. Between such events, she and her husband make their home in North Texas, where friends and family are frequently roped into serving as models in her studio and at various outdoor locales.
For fresh ideas, Standridge frequently attends living history events, where she photographs history buffs dressed in the gear and garb of the Old West while they reenact the simple daily events that took place in the lives of settlers. Later, she thumbs through the images for final ideas; yet even then, she doesn’t begin painting.
“Before I pick up my brushes,” she explains, “I do additional research to ensure the authenticity of an idea. Sometimes, I may decide to make a piece of clothing myself or change a piece of equipment or a tool. I might throw in a bedroll or a blanket or a bucket to make the setting look even more realistic. There is really a lot more work to staging a scene than meets the eye.”
Inspired by renowned artists, such as Howard Terpning, Frank Tenney Johnson, Joaquin Sorolla and John Singer Sargent, Standridge is still studying and learning from others. She comments, “As I continue to paint, I constantly realize how much more there is to learn.”
Remaining ever the listener, Standridge feels it is a trait that has served her well. “Life has become so complicated that we don’t make time to really hear one another…so, I try to slow down and listen. I hope when I do say something, it is something of value.” And in her own quiet way, through art that conveys the courage and integrity that were hallmarks of a previous generation, she eloquently speaks volumes.