The wild mountain country has always been close to Ralph Oberg’s heart. An avid mountaineer and wilderness backpacker, he has traveled extensively in the back country of the Western states in search of the pristine landscape and the wildlife that live there. His art career has always focused on his love for the untrammeled country.  

Ralph Oberg was born in 1950 and raised in Colorado where he spent much of his youth hiking and climbing in the mountain wilderness.  A career in art was obvious at an early age. Two years at Colorado State University on an Art Scholarship, vocational training and a brief stint in commercial illustration preceded the 1974 beginning of his art career. After over 10 years of growing success in the Wildlife Art genre he became dissatisfied with his photographic approach and in 1987 began to study with many of the great western plein air landscape painters of today. Ralph and his wife, artist Shirley Novak, now travel extensively in order to paint on location the wild and roadside scenes they love.  Upon returning to their Montrose home and studio they produce larger works using these outdoor paintings as  reference material.