William F. Shepherd: 1943 – 2024

William F. Shepherd, a still-life and landscape artist, was born in Casper, Wyoming. His father Walter (Shep) M. Shepherd owned Shepherd Motors in Casper and was a prominent leader (President) in the Central Wyoming State Fair. He attended the Natrona County public schools. His father and his mother, Mary Alice (MA) Brown, also had a small property outside of town where Bill learned about ranch life. He had two siblings, Suzanne (deceased) and W.M. Shepherd of Hot Springs, Arkansas. He graduated high school from Missouri Military Academy.

Bill enlisted in the U.S. Navy and served as a corpsman/medic in the early years of the Vietnam war, assigned to the Marine Corps.  He served on South Vietnamese border near the Demilitarized Zone, where his unit engaged is some of the most heavy combat operations in the war. Upon the passing of his father, he returned to the US  to serve out the rest of his military service. 

Bill enrolled at the University of Wyoming on the GI Bill, where he studied art, earning a BFA in 1974 and an MFA in 1976. Settling in Laramie, he embarked on his lifelong career as an artist, painting both abstract and still-life works. His work became a study of movement, light, and color saturation, evolving into a signature exploration of these dynamic elements.

In the late 1970s, he began visiting galleries in Santa Fe and moved to Galisteo. He was mentored by Arlene LewAllen, a Santa Fe arts educator and gallerist who helped introduce Bill to the commercial art world. He settled in Nambé and spent most of the rest of his life living and painting at Las Acequias farm.  Among his many friends in the Santa Fe art scene was his former partner, the late Gayle Maxon, Director of Contemporary Art and curator at the Gerald Peters Gallery.

During his early years in New Mexico, Bill painted trout streams, refining his craft and dedicating himself to capturing the motion of water and the light refraction off objects submerged beneath its surface on large oil canvases. He became renowned for his striking depictions of river rocks beneath rushing water, rendered on expansive canvases that conveyed both movement and depth.

Throughout his life, Bill had a deep love for the outdoors and adventure. He enjoyed hunting, trout fishing, rock climbing, kayaking, and cycling with friends and family. An avid traveler, he explored North America extensively, preferring long drives that allowed him to take in the countryside. A black belt in karate, he had a lifelong fascination with Samurai swords and collected several over the years. He also took great joy in participating in the Mother’s Day Whitewater Races on the Río Grande, an annual tradition in New Mexico.  Bill embraced both the challenge of the whitewater and the camaraderie of the event, making it a cherished part of his life.

He frequently traveled to Mexico, exploring remote villages, camping, and collecting folk art. He kayaked across the Sea of Cortez, forming friendships with environmentalists in Baja California. His painting of the vaquita, a critically endangered porpoise native to the region, was featured on a Mexican postage stamp.

His artistic focus evolved from landscapes to still lifes depicting Western themes, which he painted in his adobe studio in Nambé. His oil paintings featured Navajo weavings, Hopi Kachinas, Pueblo pottery, Mexican souvenirs, and cowboy memorabilia—objects he meticulously collected during his travels throughout the southwestern U.S. and Mexico. This period marked the culmination of his mastery of light and shadow, as he developed a unique technique that captured the intricate surface topologies and morphologies of his subjects with absolute realism. His work became a study in precision, where every texture, reflection, and interplay of light was rendered with remarkable depth and authenticity.

He received numerous awards at Western art exhibitions, and his work is featured in the permanent collections of the St. Louis Art Museum, Lamar University, the University of Wyoming Art Museum, the New Mexico Museum of Art in Santa Fe, and the Hirshhorn Collection in Washington, D.C., among others. His work is also held in private collections across the United States, including those of some of Wyoming’s most prominent figures—individuals who recognize and invest in exceptional art.

Bill’s legacy in American Realism continues through his works, which are represented at LewAllen Galleries in the Santa Fe Railyard.

Nick Perkinsnick@upslope.mediaEdit Profile

He is survived by his son, Matthew Girard Maxon with his wife, Aleishall; in-laws, Alexis and Marshall Girard; granddaughters, Toscana Paz and Matiz Pascal Girard Maxon; and his brother, W.M. Shepherd.  He was a cherished uncle to William Carey Brewster, Jr of Lakewood, Colorado.

Bill’s family and many friends will miss his sense of humor and his zest for life.
–written by Donna Berg, Robin Martin and Bill Brewster.

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AYESHA RASCOE, HOST:

At least 21 passengers were killed in last week’s hijacking of a train in Pakistan. A militant group claimed responsibility for blowing up the tracks and opening fire when the train was halfway through a tunnel, forcing it to halt. The train was carrying more than 400 people. Betsy Joles reports from Karachi.

(SOUNDBITE OF VEHICLE ENGINE)

BETSY JOLES, BYLINE: Around 4:45 on Thursday morning, vans carrying survivors of the hijacking started pulling into the railway station in Quetta, the capital city of Balochistan. Inside the station, government officials recorded the names and seat numbers of around 80 survivors of the hijacking that took place 40 hours prior. They were the last group from the train to be evacuated. Bahadur Ali, a thin 24-year-old wearing a dusty sweatshirt and gray beanie, was one of them. He described the first moments of the attack on Tuesday afternoon.

BAHADUR ALI: (Through interpreter) They said if you don’t come out, then we’ll have to come inside. Some chose to stay inside. Those who rushed out in haste were shot. Many of them were shot.

JOLES: Ali was taking the train called the Jaffar Express from Quetta to his hometown in neighboring Punjab province. The hijacking happened in a remote mountain pass along the way. It resulted in a standoff with Pakistan security forces that left 33 militants dead. Ali says he stayed on the train until he was evacuated by security forces the next day.

ALI: (Through interpreter) The situation was terrible. Everyone was worried.

JOLES: The attack was carried out by the Balochistan Liberation Army, or BLA, a militant separatist group that seeks Balochistan’s independence from the rest of Pakistan. The BLA has been active since the early 2000s but has ramped up attacks in the past several years. They are now one of the most deadly insurgent groups in the region, according to Abdul Basit of the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies in Singapore.

ABDUL BASIT: (Through interpreter) Anything which will be required in the tool kit of an insurgent group, they have all.

JOLES: He says increased recruitment from educated young people and tactics like suicide bombing picked up from other militant groups have made the BLA even harder for the Pakistani state to counter in this resourced-rich but impoverished part of the country.

BASIT: (Through interpreter) I would call it an inflection point in the Baloch insurgency because this is urban warfare, and this changes things.

JOLES: NPR reached out to the Pakistani military’s media wing for an interview. They declined but sent a link to comments by their Director General Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry on a local TV station, Dunya News.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

AHMED SHARIF CHAUDHRY: This incident of Jaffar Express changes the rules of the game.

JOLES: Chaudhry says the ringleaders of the hijacking were operating from Afghanistan. Pakistan has been struggling to contain the rise of militant attacks in its border regions. On Friday, Chaudhry also accused India of sponsoring terrorism in Balochistan. Both the Taliban in Afghanistan and the Indian government denied these accusations.

SAMMI DEEN BALOCH: In Balochistan, the state has been failed to stop the Baloch separatists. And in the end, it is the local on-ground people who will pay the price.

JOLES: This is activist Sammi Deen Baloch. She says she fears this attack will lead to more heavy-handed tactics by Pakistan’s powerful military. She’s worried about extrajudicial killings and disappearances.

UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: (Non-English language spoken).

JOLES: On Friday, friends and family members gathered in the courtyard of a home in Quetta to pray. They were mourning the loss of Shamroz Khan, a 36-year-old constable in the Pakistan Railways Police who was killed during the hijacking. Standing outside the house was Khan’s colleague, Muhammed Riaz (ph).

MUHAMMED RIAZ: (Through interpreter) We are in grief now, and this grief will last throughout our lives.

JOLES: Survivors who were with Khan says he was shot in the throat when he stood up to fetch water for fellow passengers. Riaz says his friend was that kind of person.

RIAZ: (Through interpreter) Naturally, he got up to serve. He really believed in serving people.

JOLES: For now, Riaz and other railway police officials in Quetta won’t be returning to work because train services from there are suspended.

With Sadullah Akhtar in Quetta, for NPR News, I’m Betsy Joles in Karachi, Pakistan. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.

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