By MIKE COURSON
Great Bend Post
His oil paintings come to life. Albert's Dan Branham has been painting wildlife scenes since childhood. Now the recognition is coming in. Branham's work was recently selected for the cover of 'The Upland Almanac,' a quarterly publication celebrating upland hunting tradition.
Branham grew up in Great Bend and attended Barton Community College on an art scholarship, but he said his experience is what gives him an artistic edge.
"I grew up in the city of Great Bend, but I've always been infatuated with wildlife," he said. "The last six or seven years, I've really taken it more seriously and gotten more exposure. Stuff like this with the magazine keeps happening, so it's a good thing."
Along with the cover of 'Upland Almanac,' Branham was also selected as the artist for the Kansas Governor's One-Shot Turkey Hunt in 2018, 2019, and 2021. Branham often works off photos of old farmsteads, but the wildlife creatures in the paintings are pure imagination.
"You hone your skills the older you get and the more you do it," he said. "Over the years, I've just gotten better and better. You just learn different techniques of how to make things more real looking, playing with colors and everything."
Branham posts his work on his website but was still surprised when the editor of the Vermont-based 'Almanac' contacted him about using one of his paintings for the Autumn 2022 cover. He has since been contacted by a reader in Illinois.
"I had no idea it was published yet," Branham said. "I hadn't heard from them. I had a guy from Illinois wanting to know if I had prints for sale of that particular painting because he saw it in the magazine. That's kind of how I found out about it."
Learn more about Branham and see more of his work by CLICKING HERE.