Jim Rey was born in San Bernardino in 1939 and grew up in Palo Alto, California.

Jim and his wife, Sharon, raised their five childern outside Durango, Colorado,where they continue to reside.

Jim's works, collected nationally and internationally, have been exhibited in many shows and locations including the Fredric Remington Museum in New York. His paintings have been purchased by the High Plains Museum in Lincoln, Nebraska and by the Leanin' Tree Museum in Boulder, Colorado.

Articles on his works have been published in magazines such as Cowboys and Indians, The Cowboy Way, Western Art and Architecture, Southwest Art, Art of the West, Western Art Collector, International Art Collector, Western Horseman, Beef Magazine, and others, as well as, numerous newspapers and periodicals.

Recently, his art was used on the cover of the June 2011 issue of The Western Horseman magazine with an accompanying article. Also, he was featured in Nov. 2011 on a DVD (the quarterly issued "Frontier Project} that is produced by A.J. Mangum who is also the senior editor of Ranch and Reata Magazine (formerly senior editor of Western Horseman).

His paintings have been used by Bantam Books for covers of the Louis L'Amour and Bonanza hardback and paperback books, as well as, audiocassette covers and calendars.