🎨🤠 Hey, art lovers and cowboy fans! The 2025 Jay Contway Legacy Art Crew wants to give a huge shoutout for joining us at The Great Western Show with the Montana Cowboy Hall of Fame this week! Your support made it unforgettable! Can’t wait to saddle up and see you all again next year! Raffle tickets for the Montana Cowboy Hall of Fame’s Saddle Up Fundraiser are still available, find out more here.
This fine collection of watercolors and sketches Jay painted will be available for purchase. Personally signed by the artist, they each have a story to tell. Here are a few examples:
A wide range of original Jay Contway bronze sculptures will be available for immediate purchase at the booth. Here are a few examples:
Get the first book about Jay Contway’s art and life
The Jay Contway at The Calgary Stampede book is a must-have for cowboy culture enthusiasts. Featuring stunning photos of Jay Contway’s iconic artwork and exclusive behind-the-scenes moments, this first-edition treasure offers a unique glimpse into the heart of the Calgary Stampede. Get your copy at The Great Western Show and immerse yourself in the Jay Contway Cowboy Legacy!
If you missed the raffle for Almost Home, here’s your chance to own another stunning Jay Contway piece.
Jay Contway’s original bronze sculpture Tater, is being raffled to support the Montana Cowboy Hall of Fame’s Saddle Up Fundraiser 2025. Honor Jay’s legacy and support this incredible organization by purchasing raffle tickets by calling the MCHF office today at 406-653-3800 to get yours!
Raffle drawing to be held Saturday, February 14, 2026 during the MCHF Annual Induction & Gathering Cowboy Ball
1st Place – Bronze, 2nd Place – $500 and 3rd Place – $250
Only 500 tickets available. Need not be present to win.
Tickets are $40 each
Learn more about the Montana Cowboy Hall of Fame here.
“The first sculpture I made of Tater was in beeswax, around 1965. Tater was an incredible horse—he made me a winner. I bought him from Don McLaughlin, a world champion calf roper, when I decided to get serious about roping myself. To make it happen, I sold my small herd of cattle, hooked up my horse trailer, and drove down to Fort Collins, Colorado, to pick him up. From that moment on, I started winning. Tater carried me all the way to the North Central Montana Rodeo Association (NCMRA) Finals, and I made a lot of money on that horse.”
— Jay Contway
That first beeswax sculpture of Tater now resides in the C.M. Russell Museum in Great Falls. In 2017, searching for inspiration, Jay revisited those cherished memories and sculpted Tater once again—this time in clay, later casting him in bronze. The first edition (1/100) was dedicated to the 2017 Alberta All-Around Rodeo Champion, and now, edition 4/100 will be raffled to support the Saddle Up Fundraiser 2025 for the Montana Cowboy Hall of Fame.
Bronze Sculpture: Tater · Weight: 13 lbs · Dimensions: 8 x 6 x 10in · Edition: 100 · Year Created: 2017
Jay Contway’s original bronze sculpture, Almost Home, will be auctioned to benefit the Montana Cowboy Hall of Fame during the MCHF Annual Induction & Gathering Cowboy Ball on February 8, 2025. Support this incredible organization, which Jay deeply cherished, by purchasing raffle tickets today.
Dimensions 22” L, 10” W, 15.75” H
Tickets are $50 each
Raffle drawing to be held Saturday, February 8, 2025 during the MCHF Annual Induction & Gathering Cowboy Ball
1st Place – Bronze, 2nd Place – $500 and 3rd Place – $250
Only 500 tickets available. Need not be present to win.
Buy your raffle tickets before they sell out! Call the MCHF office today at
406-653-3800.
Learn more about the Montana Cowboy Hall of Fame Annual Induction & Gathering Cowboy Ball here.
What a great show this year! Thank you all for making the book launch a success. Don’t worry if you weren’t able to get your copy of the first publication about Jay Contway and his amazing body of work for The Calgary Stampede, they are available at several of our partners and from Lynn here.
See you next year at the Great Western Show 400 3rd St. NW Great Falls, MT 59404 Phone: (406) 727-8900 Just follow the orange banners Click here for directions
Thursday 10:00am – 8:00pm
Friday 10:00am – 8:00pm
Saturday 10:00am – 8:00pm
Sunday 10:00am – 1:00pm
The first publication of Jay Contway’s amazing body of work of over forty years with The Calgary Stampede in Alberta, Canada is available here along with original art from the late Jay Contway.
For 27 years Jay chose a Face in the Crowd at the Calgary Stampede and turned that unique face into a bronze sculpture. The sculptures were sold at auction and the proceeds supported the Youth Scholarship fund for art.
Jay kept track of many of his models but lost a few over the years. He has just received a message from Facebook asking if Jay remembered a young man who sat for him in 1989. Wow, a voice from the past.
Jay knew him as “Singing with Old Men” but he had no other information. 29 years later he is known as Sings in the Trees (litstsaansski). His English name is Winston Wadsworth Jr. He is married to a lovely lady named Katelyn. They have 7 children and 4 grandchildren with one on the way. Winston is a traditional artist and teacher. He and Katelyn specialize in hide tanning, quillwork, beadwork, pottery etc. His father is from the Kainai (Blood) Tribe and his mother is from the Tsuut’ina Nation. The family tipi, which is still set up every year for the Calgary Stampede, is in the care of Teresa Big Plume and has been at the Stampede since 1912.
You can participate in Jay’s history by liking this facebook page here, who knows the connections you will make!
We hope you had a chance to meet Jay Contway in person and see his artwork at the annual Jay Contway & Friends Art Show · March 15-17, 2018. You can check out all the fun videos on Facebook from this year’s show here.
This is an intimate show with all artists in attendance that we put on every year. At our last show, new talent brought sculpture and jewelry cast in gold and silver in addition to your favorites; sculpture, paintings, scratchboard, woodwork, jewelry, leather-work, and pottery.
Jay was joined by 11 of his hand-picked Artist friends. Some old friends, some new! He hopes you enjoyed meeting them and experiencing their unique artwork as much as he did. You can follow each of the artists’ links below to see a sampling of their work and learn more about them.
Attending Artists at the 2018 Jay Contway & Friends Art Show were:
Be sure to like Jay’s Facebook page to automatically see all the other 50 Moment in Time stories to come throughout the year. You can also subscribe to receive a monthly email of the stories from the Jay Contway Moment in Time Project and exclusive offers here.
To see all the February 2018 posts click here To see all the January 2018 posts click here To see all the December 2017 posts click here
To see all the November 2017 posts click here
To see all the October 2017 posts click here
To see all the September 2017 posts click here
To see all the August 2017 posts click here
To see all the July 2017 posts click here
Jay Contway
Lance DuBoise
Scott Enloe Woodworking
Beth Enloe
Calvin Hochstrat Braiding
Gary Kerby
Rita & Stanley Lee Jewelry
Nelda Schrupp Jewelry
Randy & Tracey Setzer
Linda Short
R Ty Skiver
Sam Terakedis