Sometimes rugged, sometimes gentle, occasionally threatening, often serene, the Western landscape is what John Cogan paints with its infinite skies, its cathedral peaks, its crystal waters and its engulfing canyons.

In his early teens, John spent a year studying oil painting but he didn’t begin to take his present profession seriously until he was in his early twenties. What he did take very seriously was his formal education. John has a Ph.D. in Experimental Atomic Physics from Rice University. Until 1982 he supervised a seismic crew for Shell Oil but then left that job to pursue fine art on a full-time basis.

“If I had studied art instead of physics,” John says, “I would have become a very different artist. My background in science has been extremely helpful to my study of art. Everything in the landscape is influenced by the physics of light, atmosphere and optics.

Every painting John sends the gallery is sold and his collectors both private and corporate come from all over the country. Recently, the Sultan of Oman commissioned a painting; the Sultan has one of the world’s premier art collections. In October 1989 John was featured in the Southwest Art magazine in an article entitled “Isn’t It Grand.” In the March/April 1990 issue of Art of the West magazine John was featured in the company of three others, Wilson Hurley, Ralph Love and Richard lams. If measured by the company he keeps he is among the illustrious.