Vic Payne (American, born 1960)
A realist sculptor of Old West themes, Vic Payne was born in Dallas and raised on a ranch in New Mexico. He attributes his career path to two primary influences: his father, the western artist Ken Payne, and his early exposure to cowboy life. Payne’s successful experimentation with sculpting at age nineteen prompted him to move three years later to Cloudcroft, New Mexico, where his mother, a foundry owner, cast his pieces.
Today he lives on a forty-acre ranch in Colorado but continues to work near Santa Fe. His subjects, such as When the Hunter Becomes the Hunted, frequently depict frenetic motion and danger. A man of action himself, Payne has adopted daring avocations – plane flying and steer roping.
Information courtesy of Heritage Auction Galleries, January 2009.