Gunfight on Horseback. Watercolor. Signed lower right. Sight measures 9.5 in. high x 13 in. wide, (with frame 15.5 in. high x 19.5 in. wide).

Fred Oldfield was born in Alfalfa, Washington and raised on the Yakima Indian Reservation in Washington State.  His family followed seasonal work in central Washington and as a child he traveled in a horse-drawn wagon from job to job. His nomadic life and contacts with cowboys, Yakima Indians, and migrant workers later supplied him with subject matter for his paintings. Oldfield worked at a variety of jobs eventually finding himself in the army in the early 1940s.  He was stationed in Alaska for much of the war.  During that time he worked on developing his artistic talents.  After the war, he decided he was really interested in becoming an artist so with the help of the GI Bill he attended Seattle's Burnley Art School.  Some of his early work involved painting murals in bars and restaurants in Oregon, Washington and Alaska.  The subjects of Oldfield's paintings were primarily cowboys, Yakima Indians and the mountains of the northwest.