Mike is a working cowboy who also paints... What can I say?

After high school Mike wasn’t sure what he wanted to do but everyone said he should go to college. He worked for Sol Bouziden & Sons Ranches during his first summer after high school graduation taking care of summer yearlings. He then moved to Colby, KS. and attended Colby Community College for a couple of years. There he met some great people and made some lasting friendships but once again had neither the discipline nor the desire to be a student of academia. He caught the rodeo fever at about age seventeen and found others with that interest in college. He tried his hand at rodeo for a while trying to ride bareback horses while day working at sale barns, feed yards or for farmers. In 1982 He moved to Liberal, KS where he and his father owned an interest in Circle L Livestock auction. Soon he moved to Turpin, OK. where he was employed at Diamond S Feeders as a feedlot cowboy. That lasted almost a year but he was looking for more challenging opportunities and back to Kansas he went to the town of Ulysses where he took a job at Grant County Feeders one of the largest feed yards in the country. His main focus at the time was just to be able to be horse back as much as possible and train and trade horses but new doors were opened. He advanced from pen rider into several supervisory and management roles but most of the twenty three years he spent with Grant County he was responsible for buying and selling cattle.

Ulysses was where he started painting. He took an oil painting class with a local artist Janet Damon. He painted off and on with her classes for a couple of years. She also was involved in hosting occasional artist workshops and Mike attended a couple of these with Jack Sorenson and Harold Scott. Mike feels he has learned things from every influence he has ever been involved with and has adopted and incorporated items he thought fit his style. Most of his art education has been through the trial and error of his own efforts. A couple of times in the late 80’s and early 90’s he contemplated turning to art as a career but never had enough faith and would not give up the comfort of a regular pay check.

email: mike.betschart@yahoo.com
website: www.mikebetschartart.com
website: www.mikebetschartart.com