MY STORY

My photo
Photo circa 1947, I always wanted to be a cowboy! Whether working for a short time on the historic Hansen Ranch in Jackson Hole as a young man, just out of the service, to working the stock at the Jackson Rodeo, it nurtured in me a love of the American Cowboy. From my home in Dubois,Wyoming. I look forward each spring to roundup time with my good Friend, John Sides. On his 20,000 acre cattle ranch in South Dakota, each year we relive what ranchers and cowboys have done since cattle were introduced to the west. Little has changed in a hundred years and the experience and camaraderie is all cowboy. The period of 1820 to 1880 on the western plains was the most colorful in American history. Unfortunately, I was born too late to experience it first hand.

Monday, January 31, 2011

The Insurrectos (Generals Villa and Zapata)


I had this one started at least a year ago and was stuck. I put it aside and decided it would be a good painting to drag out and work on since I had not been painting a lot. I am not sure that makes good sense since it is not an easy painting to do with multiple figures and depth perception but what the heck it wasn't painting itself, sitting in the corner. Besides those paintings haunt you and you have to make a decision sooner or later to finish or throw out. It was a linen canvas and I just couldn't do that to a piece of linen. Here it is in an almost finished state that I will set in a corner and look at and decide again to invest in a frame or pitch. What do you think?

Monday, January 3, 2011

Paying Respects


I have just about finished what I now call "Paying Respects". These cowboys as far as we know did not bury their friend but have come to say "goodbye" and "pay respects". If their friend died from a fall from a horse or shot through the heart we cannot know, but the grave will soon disappear from wind and weather and this may be the last time they will visit or even be able to find it. Only one horse has a rope but all three cowboys have guns, so maybe that tells us something.
I tried to keep the color tones somewhat somber. The computer picture is actually a little bright and the colors a little rich. I hope it works and you enjoy it.