R. Tom Gilleon

Ralph Thomas Gilleon (born March 14, 1942) is an American artist who is best known for his paintings of Tipis, Plains Indians, and Old West imagery. His work is unusual within the Western art genre for its modernist style, taking inspiration from artists such as Andy Warhol, Mark Rothko, and Edward Hopper.

Gilleon was born in Gainesville, Florida on March 14, 1942 and was raised by his grandparents until beginning school. In 1960, he accepted a baseball scholarship to the University of Florida where he briefly studied architecture before enlisting in the U.S. Navy. During his service, Gilleon worked as a radio operator in Argentia, Newfoundland and flew anti-submarine flights in the north Atlantic. He also marched in President Kennedy's inauguration parade and was a cryptographer aboard a blockade ship during the Cuban Missile Crisis. After his enlistment in the Navy expired, Gilleon briefly worked as a radio operator for the Guided Missile Range Division in Cape Kennedy, Florida.

Gilleon accepted a position as illustrator for NASA’s Apollo space program in 1967 and then in upstate New York designing marketing material for Mohawk Data Sciences. When he returned to Florida, he opened an independent art studio and produced work for local advertising agencies. Having established a reputation in the area with his illustrations, Gilleon was one of three illustrators employed by a new theme park in Orlando: Walt Disney World.

He subsequently accepted a job at WED Enterprises (later Walt Disney Imagineering) in 1979 where he helped design the EPCOT Center, Disneyland Paris, and Disneyland Tokyo. He met and married his wife, Laurie Stevens Gilleon, who was also working as an Imagineer. In 1982, Gilleon and his wife Laurie attended an outdoor painting workshop in Montana. Enamored of the space and scenery of the Rocky Mountain front, the couple purchased land there and built a home. Gilleon continued to work as an illustrator for Disney remotely while developing his own body of work, which increasingly depicted the land and history of the American West.

Gilleon's paintings can be found in the permanent collections of the C.M. Russell Museum, the Booth Western Art Museum, Whitney Western Art Museum and Scottsdale's Museum of the West. His work is also included in large private collections such as the Tom Petrie collection, the Tim Peterson collection, the Erwin and Helga Haub collection, and the Patrick and Carol Hemingway collection.

• 2009: Named feature artist of the Jackson Hole Fall Arts Festival.
• 2012: Booth Western Art Museum hosted solo exhibit titled The Iconic West of R. Tom Gilleon. January 28 – May 27.
• 2013: Gilleon was the first living artist to have a solo exhibit at the C.M. Russell Museum. Titled Let Icons Be Icons: The Art of R. Tom Gilleon. August 16 – December 28.
• 2013: Gilleon's painting Hair Apparent broke the record sale price of any living artist at the Russell live auction when it sold for $225,000.
• 2020 (upcoming): Scottsdale's Museum of the West will host a retrospective with works by Ken Riley and R. Tom Gilleon.
• Founding member of the C.M. Russell Skull Society of Artists.
• Member of the C.M. Russell Riders.
• Member of the Montana Painters Alliance.