They painted the American West and built businesses to match. Meet the cowgirl artists who never asked the art world’s permission.
A feature documentary following contemporary women artists who are shaping how the American West is seen, collected, and remembered.
Longer conversations from the feature, released one artist at a time. Each episode runs five to ten minutes and gives the full story behind the work.
These are the women painting a more complete picture.
Cowgirls follows contemporary female Western artists creating powerful, authentic work and building serious careers in galleries, museums, and private collections. The film celebrates their talent, their commercial success, and the cultural impact of artists who are changing how we see the American West.
Alongside the artists, the film hears from the gallery owners who represent them and the museum curators and art historians who are bringing their work into permanent collections. Red Steagall narrates in the voice of a campfire storyteller.
Painters, sculptors, ranchers, and businesswomen.
Museums, collectors, and shows are turning toward women working in Western art.
In the studio and on the land with artists who live the West they paint and sculpt.
How these artists built careers, markets, and collector bases of their own.
The feature can only hold so much. The series releases the longer interviews, five to ten minutes each, so every artist can tell her story in full. Season One travels across Texas.
The series opens with Alice Leese. In an extended conversation recorded for the feature, she talks about her work, her process, and her life as a working artist in the West.
Next Texas artist announced soon.
In the edit.
In the edit.
Defined the modern cowgirl image in charcoal and acrylic. National Cowgirl Museum & Hall of Fame.
Among the most decorated painters working in the Western canon today.
First Mexican-born woman inducted into the National Cowgirl Museum & Hall of Fame.
Sixth-generation Arizona ranching family. First woman invited to exhibit with the Cowboy Artists of America.
One of twelve artists recognized as a Master by the International Society of Scratchboard Artists.
Built one of Australia’s largest bridal labels, then left it to paint the West. 2023 Quest for the West Artist of Distinction.
Creator of the Re-Western series, classic Western film scenes recast with women.
Public monument sculptor with major civic installations across the West.
Marc Sternberg
Tierra (TT) Frost
Red SteagallTexas Cowboy Poet Laureate
Andrea BariName and Like Productions
David Griffin
Liz Jackson
Megan Wimberley
Allyson Sheumaker
Peggy Judy
Dr. Andrew Patrick Nelson
Cody Kuehl
Patrick JohnsonHold It Now! Films
Marc Sternberg
Andy DrachmanTerri Kelly Moyers interview
Octaviano RogesMusic Supervisor
Isabella Victoria UhlContributing Music
Evan NicholsonAdditional Music · Brother Friend
Son of a Botanist Productions
Marc Sternberg is a documentary filmmaker and producer with more than twenty years of leadership in marketing and media. A Fulbright Specialist in media production, marketing, and entrepreneurship, he has produced and directed the documentaries Undiscovered Country, Why We Mow, and His Way: Addiction and Recovery.