R. (Bob) Stem was raised and educated in a small rural town in northern California. He received his B. A. degree in art from California State University, San Jose in 1968. After three years of service in the army, which included a year in beautiful southeast Asia, he attended California State University, Fresno, and received an M.A. degree in art in 1972. Bob spent the next few years operating his own pottery business in Phoenix, then moved to Montana in 1980. After picking up another degree in education in 1982, he started teaching in the Montana Public School system. He was the art and photography teacher in Deer Lodge, Montana, for twenty years. During that time Bob became interested in horses and worked five summers for an outfitter, taking people into the Bob Marshall Wilderness.

His interest in horses and ranch life continues and is expressed in his art work which deals primarily with present day ranch life, the people who live it, the land and the wildlife with whom they share it. Most of the portraits that he has done in the past few years are neighbor ranchers and their family members.

In recent years Bob has started offering limited edition prints of his drawings and has shown his paintings in national shows including shows with the Oil Painters of America, Montana Watercolor Society, Salon Internaional 2002 and others.

Bob is currently represented by the folllowing galleries and outlets:
Big Fork Art & Cultural Center, Big Fork, MT
The Crows Nest Gallery, Polson, MT
The Hitchin' Post, Philipsburg, MT
Philipsburg Museum Gift Shop, Philipsburg, MT
Wagon Wheel, Drummond, MT
A. Hooker's Gallery, Great Falls, MT
Twentyninth Avenue Artworks, Spokane, WA

Gallery inquiries welcome.