Formerly a successful architect, Nelson Boren credits a principle used in architecture with the birth of his artistic style. "Long ago I found a photograph of a cowboy," he says, "who had his back to the camera and was visible only from his shoulders to his knees.  I wondered where he was going. To a rodeo? A campfire?  The image invited a story, and I thought, 'that's gestalt' - when you have an incomplete image and your mind consciously or unconsciously completes it."  Boren uses the theory of gestalt to show - but not tell - his intriguing tales of the New West.

Born and raised in Tempe, Arizona, Nelson studied to be an architect earning a degree from Arizona State University.  In 1980, after practicing for 15 years, during which time he owned a successful firm and won numerous awards, the burning desire to paint returned and he resumed watercolor classes, this time with a higher degree of dedication and more realistic goals in pursuit of his dream of becoming a full-time artist.

Nelson knew he would have to sell some works to justify painting full-time, so he went door-to-door until he got his art represented by several Scottsdale galleries.  Within two weeks, two of his paintings sold.  Since then, some of the leading galleries in the U.S. have sought to represent his work, recognizing his unique combination of incredible detail and big, bold and graphic images.

Today, Nelson's work is in collections across the United States including the Whitney Museum of Western Art, Cody, Wyoming; the Coca Cola Company and the Dallas Cowboys NFL football team.