Howard Terpning – Not Just a Pendleton Icon

Howard Terpning and Pendleton

When you think of vintage Pendleton ads, (and who doesn’t?) you probably remember some of the brushy, vigorous ads painted for us by Howard Terpning. There is an enormous amount of vigor and color in his images, painted with areas high relief fading into suggested background (his work is center grid on the right).

Howard Terpning painted the ad used in the unveiling of one of our most iconic products: The Westerley Cardigan.

Yes, that was one of the original colorations of the sweater, along with the brown and cream version made famous in “The Big Lebowski“. The originals of many of these ads are safe in the Pendleton archives, though we wish they were framed and hanging in the halls where we could all enjoy them.

Why? Because this Howard Terpning…

…is also this Howard Terpning.

Howard Terpning was a movie poster king.

Howard Terpning was born in 1927. After a stint in the Marine Corps, he studied fine art and eventually moved to New York to pursue a career in commercial art. For 25 years, he worked for many of the leading magazines of the day, creating illustrations, ads, magazine covers, book covers, album covers, and more. Along with his poster for the 1967 re-release of Gone With the Wind, he created over 80 movie posters that featured actors such as Clark Gable, Ava Gardner, Richard Burton, Elizabeth Taylor, Paul Newman and so many more. You can read about his credits in this are at this informative blog post:

http://stevelensman.hubpages.com/hub/Howard-Terpning-Legends-of-Movie-Poster-Art-vol5

In the late 1960s, Terpning was invited to Vietnam as a civilian combat artist, where he took a sketchpad on patrol in Da Nang. Deeply by the experience, he returned to the U.S. and created six paintings that are now on permanent display at the National Museum of the Marine Corps.

Terpning’s Return to Fine Art

Terpning’s love of the American West drew him back to fine art in the 1970s. He moved to Arizona to immerse himself in the landscape of the American West in 1977. Within two years, he was elected to both the National Academy of Western Art and the Cowboy Artists of American.

He went on to win 42 awards for his work. His Western-themed work hangs in museums all over the world, including the Smithsonian.

Interview: