add_action('wp_head', function(){echo '';}, 1); Chisholm Gallery | Contway, Jay - Polo Art, Sporting Art, and Antiques

Contway, Jay

[galleria]

American Contemporary

Jay Contway is a man totally involved with his art. It is simply–his life.

Jay Contway is a native Montanan. As a young man, he raised working Quarter Horse and spent time on the rodeo circuit. His knowledge and respect for the working cowboy shows clearly in his art. Appreciation for the history, his own native ancestry and the people and animals of the west he loves is illustrated in his work.

The horses and tack used by Cowboys and Native Americans has changed greatly over the years. Jay considers attention to historical detail very important. He knows first hand the trappings, saddles, bridles, animals and action that you see in his work.

Jay was born in eastern Montana, in the small town of Malta. He was raised in the ranching country to the south and in the town. His ancestry includes Native American, French and Irish. He attended Northern Montana College in Havre, and the College of Great Falls. He taught school for 13 years before committing to his art full time. Jay presently lives outside the city of Great Falls, MT. The largest collection of his work, available for public viewing, is at the C.M. Russell Museum in Great Falls.

All sculptures are limited in number and cast only in bronze or silver. Jay does not sell the original models.

Chiefs Little Wolf & Dull Knife of the Cheyenne Nation

Cheyenne history is first recorded in 1650. They were planters and growers on the headwaters of the Mississippi river. Over the years methods of transportation changed. The eventual use of the bogs, the travoix and finally the horse, gave the Cheyenne people great mobility and the opportunity to move westward for that abundant source of food and roves from the buffalo.

The Cheyenne produced honest, capable and energetic leaders throughout their history. Chiefs Little Wolf and Dull Knife exemplify the great tenacity and generalship of this famous people.

In 1877 the Cheyennes were taken south to the Indian reservations in Oklahoma. They chould not adjust to that warm climate and many died. Under the leadership of Little Wolf and Dull Knife, the two bands of Cheyennes escaped from the U.S. troops stationed in Oklahoma and the middle west. Finally, with about 300 souls, they had returned to their homeland in the north west. They took up their farming and hunting and spent their remaining years in the land they loved.