The Beginnings of my Professional Art Career

I received my start as a professional artist in the field of Western Art. The painting on this page, Old Leather Denim and Dreams, provides an example of my award winning Western oil renditions depicting my actual working experience with an interesting arrangement of Wyoming and Montana cattle ranches, including one of the last horsedrawn chuckwagon outfits in the American West.
In many respects, the horse and saddle cowboy I worked with is similar to his rugged predecessors at the turn of the century. As one participant in the array of artists attempting to create a valid statement concerning our past and contemporary Western heritage, I feel privileged to have been able to live and work with some of its most authentic, but gradually vanishing remnants.

During an extended break on the fall roundup with the Trial Creek Ranch in Cody's high country, I observed my friend and saddle companion, Charlie Blackstone, in a twin-like mood of dreamy contemplation with his legendary horse. It was the right moment and the perfect image from the only remaining American culture which still maintains a direct functioning link with the 19th century.  This is
a unique work, showing an almost mystical unity of nature, man, and horse.

Home