Waiting...

Another of my cowboy series, this painting is of a good friend of mine who is dead now. He was a cowboy's cowboy, a true gentleman and a good friend. He had a unique way of sitting on a horse, especially when motionless as here. Sitting, waiting, perhaps for the day to warm, or maybe just surveying his domain. This painting has sold. Thank you.

Gottcha!

Continuing my cowboy series, this painting is of a calf roper at the Fred Harmon 4th of July Rodeo in Pagosa Springs some years ago. Fred was the creater of the Little Beaver series that some of you may remember.

Here I was striving for the feeling of action without the typical "freeze frame" look. This is something new for me and I realize there is a fine line between blurring the images too much and loosing some of the identity and not enough, thereby loosing the effect. With this one I have sketched in the imagery and developed the detail from right to left to focus on the calf. The warm, nondescript background helps focus on the cowboy, horse and calf. It is also a great foil for the blues I used in the riders jeans and the shadows of the calf and horse. This painting is for sale at my gallery. Please contact me if you are interested.

The Red Shirt

As many of you know, I used to be a cowboy. Hmmm. That sounds like the title to a song or a book..."I Used to Be a Cowboy". I'll have to remember that one. Anyway, I've been thinking about doing something different with my art, trying to find something that will excite people. Most of my work is pretty representaional. I like to paint a variety of subject matter and rather than try to make a change in "what I paint", I've decided to look more at "how" I paint it. In otherwords, maybe develope my style a bit more.

Many artists go through a shift in style throughout their careers and maybe it's time for me to get out of my comfort zone and stretch a little. This painting, although a familiar subject, is done a little differently, and I kind of like the look. With the portraits I've been doing lately, I've been experimenting with the background treatment and I've used what learned there on the background of this painting. I hope you like it.

This is a little 8x6 oil painting that is for sale at auction. This painting SOLD!! Thanks Heide!

Delicate Arch

Last fall we went over to Arches National Park near Moab, Utah. October was a perfect time of year to go. Not too warm during the day and cool in the evenings. I love painting the red rock features in southeastern Utah. Although I have done a lot of work in the area this was the first time I had been to Arches in many years. The hike to see Delicate Arch was well worth the effort. This particular arch is the one that the state of Utah uses for much of it's branding. This 8x10 studio oil is available at the gallery.

Soldiers Falling Into Camp

I was taking inventory the other day and I came across a pencil drawing I had done some years ago of Crow Indian Dancers at the annual Crow Fair in Crow Agency, Montana. This gathering is a big deal for the Crow. Representatives of all invited tribes show up for a week or so of celebration. A show of feathers, dress, hoopla and regalia. Horse races are big.


I used to be a Lease Agent on the Crow Reservation, representing the Padlock Ranch who was the largest land holder on the rez to the tune of about 250,000 acres give or take a few thousand depending on the year. I had roughly 1400 individual Crows that I dealt with every year involving a little over $1,000,000 in lease payments. It was sort of like running a little bank as money was loaned against the leases, and of course this all had to be accounted for.

One of “my Indians”, Fredrick Lefthand, along with a couple of other fellas wrote a book titled “Soldiers Falling Into Camp”, so titled because of a vision Sitting Bull had just days prior to the famous battle involving Custer against the Sioux and the Northern Cheyenne. Fredrick gave me a personalized copy.

I’m sure you are familiar with the battle from our history books. What is unique about this book is that it is from the Indian’s perspective of the time. Many of my Crow “friends” still harbored great resentment toward the “white man”, often expressing their anger against me. I continually had to remind them that I had nothing to do with the matter, and besides, at the time of the battle, my ancestors were still in Norway. If necessary, I would remind them that the Crow fought on the side of Custer…so there. That generally ended the argument. The Crow are embarrassed by their alliance with Custer although they were enemies of the Sioux and Cheyenne at the time.

The Crow Reservation surrounds the Custer Battlefield or the Battle of the Little Bighorn National Park as it is known today. I leased much of this land for the Padlock and became very familiar with the names of the creeks and drainages of the battle site and those traversed by Custer and his various regiments as they approached the Indian encampment on the Little Big Horn. Ash Creek, the Rosebud, Medicine Man Coulee and of course the Little Big Horn. I’ve stood on the very ground, alone, in the still heat of a certain June day and it was easy to imagine. I have to admit an eerie feeling and tingling of my skin. Hmmm. Material for a painting I suppose.

The Cowgirl Has The Blues

I've been on a roll painting portraits lately it seems. They are a lot of fun to do not to mention quite the challenge. Most of the recent portraits have been of bikers I came across in Sturgis, South Dakota this summer. I've been searching out faces or poses that have some interest. I was going through some images I have from a trip to the Californio Ranch Roping in Red Bluff, CA I attended a couple of years ago. Cowgirls and cowboys make for some great subject matter too.

This one that I just finished last week is of a gal that seemed to have a bit of a sad or pensive look to her. The hat and the look on her face made her a temptimg subject. I'm pretty happy with this one. Painting women, such as this painting and the previous one of the "Biker Chic" is quite different than doing paintings of men. If a guy's nose is a little out of shape or his forhead is a bit large, it just adds to his character. Not so with the ladies. They have to look more feminine with softer lines and more delicate features...at least the ones I want to paint. It is a nice contrast to the men.

I'm getting a little bolder with the runny washes I use as a background and the red stripe was just too irresitible to pass up. This is a 12x12 oil painting available at the gallery. Enjoy.

Biker Chic

Since I went to the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally in Sturgis, South Dakota this summer, I've been doing some paintings of the "characters" I photographed on Main St. So far I've been painting the guys. This is a 16x12 oil I recently completed featuring one of the the biker babes that was in Sturgis. This particular gal seemed to stand out a bit. I really enjoyed doing this one. It ranks as a favorite. This painting has SOLD! Thanks William!