Marye Russell Roeser
High Sierra Western Artist

Marye Roeser

Marye lives and maintains her studio on a horse ranch in remote Antelope Valley in Coleville, eastern California. Living and Working in the eastern Sierra for most of her life, has given the artist an intimate vision of the packing, outfitting, and livestock ranching traditions, as well as the people, scenery and culture of this beautiful, wild side of California.  This region provides the inspiration and subjects of her representational watercolor style.  Marye uses colorful glazes to make her landscape glow. Her cowboy subjects show the strong light of clear air in high elevations and are people she knows well.  
Marye is married to rancher and outfitter Lou Roeser, has raised 4 children and enjoys 4 young grandchildren. Daughter, Leslie Engelhart is a well known western pencil artist while son, Lee Roeser, McGee Creek Pack Station owner, is an expert pack gear and saddle maker. 

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Lou Roeser, Western Photography

Lou Roeser

Growing up in Arizona, Lou Roeser had the opportunity to work on various cattle ranches, and a dude ranch in Montana while a young man attending college. He then packed for the Mammoth Lakes Pack Outfit, a pack outfit in the Eastern Sierra Nevada Mountains, and there he found his life work and his home. He met his wife, Marye, there and together they worked at pack stations and then purchased the station where he had first packed and been introduced to the High Sierra. Lou was fascinated by the spectacular country of the eastern Sierra and the western lifestyles flourishing there, always packing a camera with him to record these activities.
As a side line to the Mammoth Lakes Pack Outfit, Sierra Meadows Equestrian Center that he built, and ranching, he soon became involved with the commercial film business. He began supplying horses and mules for Western Films such as How the West Was Won, North to Alaska, Nevada Smith, and providing locations, wagons, sleighs, and wranglers. Through all of these endeavors, his camera was always nearby. Beginning a 25 year history of working with the Marlboro film shoots, plus other companies, he carefully observed and learned from the world class photographers who photographed the scenes and cowboy camps that he had visualized and set-up for them, asked questions, and shot his own views of the action. He wanted to record what his business, Old West Film Outfitters, was accomplishing as well as show what the West was all about.
Lou’s photographs, mostly shot in the Eastern Sierra that he knows so well, record the western life style that is an important part of its unique culture. These photos include scenes of ranch life, mule packing, spring and fall Horse Drives, cattle ranching, winter sleigh rides, a beautiful wilderness of mountains and desert as well as the many commercial films. Through his lens, he continues to capture the folks who live and work in this setting as well as the horses and mules that are a part of their work.

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Read about some of the area history in our Sierra Ramblings pages and look for an upcoming book by Marye on the history of Sierra commercial pack stations.
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