James Guilford Swinnerton 1875 - 1974
American humorist, Will Rogers meeting Jimmy Swinnerton. Photo is from Painters of the Desert by Ed Ainsworth, 1960.		Swinnerton with his Palette and Pipe from the January 1951 issue of Arizona Highways Magazine.
	"Yuma Desert"

Sketch "Wild Mustard California Coast"

Smoke tree wash

Sketch "Nevada Desert Near Hoover Dam"

Visit our printbin to view these other Swinnerton works

"Desert Cacti"

"Desert Horizon"

"Salton Sea"

Known as the “the Dean of Desert Artists,” Swinnerton came to the desert not by choice. He was a Californian, and attended the San Francisco Art Association Art School where he studied under William Keith and Emil Carlsen along with classmate Maynard Dixon.

His skills were noticed by a young William Randolph Hearst who brought Swinnerton to New York to work for his newspaper syndicate. He penned two comic strips, "Little Jimmy," and "Little Tiger." But, in 1903 at age twenty-eight, he contracted tuberculosis, and for health reasons relocated to California, this time to the desert community of Colton.

From 1903 onward, he was a painter of the desert. At first, his renditions were not accepted. Critics expected the vast wastelands of the Sahara, but Swinnerton persisted. He explored throughout New Mexico, Arizona (nine years before it became the 48th state), Utah, and California. His favored subjects included the Grand Canyon and portraits of American Indians. He even had a comic strip of Indian children called "Canyon Kiddies" which was published in Good Housekeeping Magazine.

Decades after Swinnerton drew "Little Jimmy" and the "Canyon Kiddies," these strips were made into animated cartoons. In 1936, "Little Jimmy" was a guest star in Max Fleischer's "Betty Boop." In the 1940's, Warner Brothers Looney Toons featured the "Canyon Kiddies" in an animated cartoon entitled Mighty Hunters. Swinnerton's provided paintings of the Grand Canyon which were used for the backdrops. View our article in Bodega Bay Heritage Gallery Monthly, March, 2009, and you may view "YouTube" versions of both of these cartoons.

Jimmy was a friend to many western artists, and an inspiration and teacher for others. In "The Man Who Painted Sunshine," there is a description of a painting trek where John W. Hilton accompanied Jimmy Swinnerton on an enjoyable sketching trip to Monument Valley.

Sources: "The Man Who Painted Sunshine," by Katherine Ainsworth; AskArt; SAMUELS’ Encyclopedia of ARTISTS of THE AMERICAN WEST, Peggy and Harold Samuels, 1985, Castle Publishing; Arizona Highways Magazine, January issue, 1951.