Collection: Cindy Long

“Everyone has a story. When I do a portrait, I try to make a connection with the person. I try to capture a mood or feeling or a moment in time.” - Cindy Long

Cindy Long’s sensitive graphite portraits bring to life the many faces of the people of the American West. Her lifelong love of drawing has found them to be captivating subjects, full of personality, strength, and character. Cindy believes that portraying their faces in graphite or charcoal is the perfect way to capture their strong and unique spirits. She finds the sensation of a pencil in her moving hand and the direct application of graphite deeply satisfying. “I also love how a black-and-white portrait can capture the essence of a personality and seemingly go straight into the soul of the subject, without the distraction of color.”

Many of Cindy’s earliest memories are holding a pencil in her hand, spending hour after hour drawing on any surface available. Educated and employed in commercial graphic design for a number of years, she took a long hiatus from the world of art. But her first love, drawing people, coaxed her back, and she began to focus on cowboys, cowgirls, people of the American West. Cindy now enjoys traveling to beautiful locations all over the West in search of new faces and inspiration.

Her work has been included in art and museum shows throughout the West. She has been featured in several art publications, including “Art of the West”, “Western Art Collector”, “Southwest Art”, “Horses in Art” (cover story), and “Strokes of Genius: The Best of Drawing”.