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As a young boy in Holton, Kan., Robert Sudlow developed a lifelong reverence for the Kansas prairie. He has devoted his career to capturing the state’s incomparable spaces and skies on canvas. He received a bachelor’s degree in fine arts in 1942 from the University of Kansas, where he studied under Albert Bloch. Following graduation he enlisted in the U.S. Navy, training as a pilot. He was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross.

He later studied in art academies in Paris and at the California College of Arts and Crafts, where he earned a master’s degree in 1956 and was taught by prominent California painter Richard Diebenkorn. He began his KU teaching career while still in graduate school and, in 1962, he was appointed associate professor of drawing and painting. He continued to teach painting until his retirement in 1987.

Sudlow received the first Kansas Governor’s Arts Award in 1974. The Native Sons and Daughters of Kansas named him Kansan of the Year in 1997. His paintings are included in countless exhibitions, as well as numerous public and private collections across the nation and abroad. His works are part of the permanent collections at the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, Mo.; Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn, N.Y.; The Joslyn Museum of Art, Omaha, Neb.; Saint Louis Art Museum; Mulvane Museum of Topeka, Kan.; Wichita Art Museum; Marianna Kistler Beach Museum of Art at Kansas State University; Spencer Museum of Art, University of Kansas, Lawrence, Kan.; Baker University, Baldwin City, Kan.; Albrecht-Kemper Museum of Art, St. Joseph, Mo. and many others.