Fred Fields began painting at the age of nine under the tutelage of an artist who was his mentor for the next ten years. A graduate of Central Academy of Commercial Art in Cincinnati, Ohio, Fields established a successful illustration career. Despite this, he found the idea of painting for the sake of painting very appealing. While visiting friends in Arizona, he showed his work to several galleries and received favorable response. Fields fell in love with Western art and the desert Southwest, beginning a new chapter in his career after making the move there. His artistic focus is contemporary people of the West with ties to the Old West Frontier. His moody paintings convry a simplicity and respect for the people and for an era and way of life that is rapidly becoming a memory, as in A Dog and His Cowboy:

"Every ranch has a few dogs hanging around that are of questionable breeding. Some work while some oversee from the shade of a Mesquite tree. I was at a ranch near Cave Creek, AZ, with my camera. I followed the guys around while they attending to their various cowboy jobs. The ranch boss had this dog that followed him everywhere. That dog loved him to no end." - Fred Fields