For your consideration is this Frank McCarthy Signed Limited Edition, "Watching The Wagons", #469/1400, 1982. A massive thunderstorm gathering in the background adds drama to this painting and symbolizes the growing storm between settler and Native American. A group of Sioux watch as an early wagon train pushes west. The Native Americans were not yet ready to fight for they had not yet lost their buffalo or vast lands. But as the influx continued, these events would come to pass and the gathering storm would break and unleash its fury on the prairie. 'Gathering storm clouds symbolize the approaching conflict as Indians worriedly observe settle wagons just beyond effective rifle range,' wrote Frank McCarthy. 'In the beginning people were mostly just passing through, but as settlers increasingly dropped off to stay, it was clear that the Indians' claim to the land was threatened.' Frank McCarthy's (1924-2002) dynamic paintings frequently featured the people of the west with a special emphasis on the Plains Indian, mountain men and cavalry that comprised the lore and lure of the Old West. Appropriately entitled the “Dean of Western Action Painters,” Frank McCarthy’s art was unsurpassed for its motion, drama and absolute attention to accuracy and detail. Highly collected and frequently imitated, Frank McCarthy’s works were treasured throughout the world as classic examples of contemporary Western Art. Retrospective showings of Frank McCarthy’s paintings have been held at the Museum of the Southwest, Midland, Texas; the R.W. Norton Museum in Shreveport, La.; the Thomas Gilcrease Museum in Tulsa, Ok.; and in 1992, at the Cowboy Artist of America Museum (now known as National Center for American Western Art) in Kerrville, Texas. Frank McCarthy was invited to join the prestigious Cowboy Artists of America organization in 1975 and was an active member in the CAA group for 23 years. He was inducted into the Society of Illustrators Hall of Fame in 1997 Three books of his paintings have been published-The Art of Frank C. McCarthy, Frank C. McCarthy, Fifteen Anniversary commemorative and The Old West, a leather-bound Collector’s Edition. More than 100 limited edition art prints of his paintings have been published since 1974 by The Greenwich Workshop. This Limited Edition Signed print is in very nice condition, no obvious marring noted. Measures 20"W x 30"L.