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It's that time of year again! I am looking forward to the World Famous Miles City Bucking Horse Sale, also known as the Cowboy Mardi Gras, May 16-19, 2024. Live horse-racing, concerts and a trade show are also on tap. I will be participating in the Quick Draw and Auction on Saturday, the 18th at the Riverside Park downtown. This event raises money for the wonderful Waterworks Art Museum, a beautiful gem on the prairie that brings arts and culture to Miles City and the surrounding small towns in the remote areas of eastern Montana.

 

The action begins immediately following the parade with the lively band playing up a storm, as the artists are given 30 minutes to create a work of art from scratch with no preparatory sketching. It's fast and furious and fun with a live auction. After that, I head to the Bucking Horse Sale to gather reference photos for future paintings, marveling at the beautiful horses that buck, as well as the seasoned mounts of the amazing pickup men. What's nice is that a person can get fairly close to the rodeo action and watch the race horses warming up as well as the actual races.

 

All in all, it's one of my favorite events of the year. Hope to see you there!

 

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I am pleased to announce that this oil painting "Lightning Strikes" is headed to Clifton, Texas for the 32nd Annual Bosque Art Classic, a western art show judged each year by a member of the esteemed Cowboy Artists of America. This year's judge is Teal Blake, CA. 

 

This is always a very competitive show and this year was no exception, with just 174 pieces selected out of nearly 800 entries! The opening reception is September 9th and the exhibit runs through September 23, 2017.

 

For more information: https://www.bosqueartscenter.org/page/artclassic.aspx .

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I am thrilled that this painting was selected for the Committee Purchase Award at the Stampede Western Invitational Art Exhibit in Greeley, Colorado. It will be featured on the 2018 Show poster and marketing. What an honor! The exhibit in in its 16th year as part of the Greeley Independence Stampede - a Colorado tradition that began in the 1800's to honor the local potato farmers. I love that! The Stampede hosts PRCA world-class rodeos and concerts with top name rock and country western entertainment that goes on for 10 days each July, ending on the 4th of July. The art exhibit was founded in 2000 by Mike Kettering and dedicated art lovers, Shirley and the late Willis "Tuffy" Holland. the art exhibit is open to the public through the 4th of July, 2017.

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This is a oil painting of two horses facing the sun, high on a hill, with a slight breeze in their manes, ever watchful for intruders or threats to their safety, or sometimes just naturally curious about something on the horizon. It is one of several paintings currently being exhibited in a group show, the "Western Art Roundup" at the Waterworks Art Museum in Miles City, Montana which runs through June 9, 2017. We had a nice opening reception last weekend where I met one of the photographers, Kim Erickson and found out we were related! Her work is wonderful and reflects her home in eastern Montana, living and working on a cattle ranch. The exhibit also includes the work of Montana painters, S. Ryan White and watercolorist, Afton Ray-Rossol and Canadian photographer Ken Dalgano - all displaying beautiful work representing the western way of life.

 

This annual exhibit is held in conjunction with the World Famous Miles City Bucking Horse Sale, (also known as the Cowboy Mardi Gras!) coming up the 3rd weekend of May, 2017 - always a lot of fun with rodeo, street dances, horse racing and much more. There is an unlimited amount of opportunity for my reference-gathering and taking photos - right up my alley with all the cowboys, horses and bronc riding!

 

Some of us artists will also be participating in the ever-exciting one-half hour Quick Draw and Auction, a fundraiser for the Museum held on Saturday after the parade in Riverfront Park. Making a weekend of it, there will also be the delicious Sunday brunch at the Museum with live cowboy music. I hope you will be in town for the festivities!

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The North Dakota Cowboy Hall of Fame will be dedicating two new exhibits on May 2, 2015 with ribbon cuttings and a guest appearance by 1982 PRCA world bull riding champion, Charlie Sampson. The new exhibits will celebrate Wayne Herman, 1992 PRCA world bareback riding champion and Steve Tomac, nationally renowned PRCA rodeo clown. There will also be the opening of the 4th Annual "Cowboys and Indians" art exhibit featuring several regional western and Native American artists. I am pleased to have been invited back to participate in this exhibit and will have two paintings there.

The event will also feature live music and a one-of-a-kind Native American and Western cuisine prepared especially for the N.D. Cowboy Hall of Fame.


For more information regarding tickets, hotel reservations and event activities, call the NDCHF at (701) 623-2000. Read More

Why does a full grown man with all of his marbles climb on the back of a 2000 pound animal who will stop at nothing to rid itself of this pesky human on it's back? I suppose it's the same reason humans have been climbing mountains, jumping out of airplanes and riding hair- raising roller coasters. Because it's there, you will have a story to tell and risking your fool neck makes you feel alive. Being a person who has a strong sense of self-preservation, I can only stand by and be thrilled vicariously as I watch these daredevils defying death. Maybe these bull riders have a heightened sense of our precious, short time on this earth because they sure are willing to live life to the fullest - what a ride! Read More

Some paintings take awhile and others go fairly quickly. This was one of the quicker ones and I had a blast painting it. I have been trying to consciously apply more paint in my oils and I think it paid off on this one with the paint texture adding to the excitement of the moment. I think sometimes a painter feel something akin to adrenalin when a painting is going quickly. I have only been bucked off of normally nice horses, so as far as riding wild broncs bareback, I can only imagine the adrenaline rush that comes with it, and try to express the rush through my artwork! (It's much safer!)

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I am pleased to announce that this painting, "Bronc Explosion" was awarded The Diane Townsend Award at the 35th Annual Juried Exhibit - "Works Of and On Paper," at the Waterworks Art Museum in Miles City, Montana! It was also one of the FAV 15% in the January 2013 BoldBrush Contest. I am honored!

The exhibit runs through March 8, 2014.

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A horse that is used to "pick up" cowboys at the rodeo is very well mannered and knows his job inside out. He has to remain calm in exciting circumstances as he and his rider get in the middle of wild broncs to insure the safety of the bronc rider. I never tire of watching a pick-up horse and rider do their job at rodeos as there is always great action to watch. I find it very inspiring as far as artwork goes. Here is a calm moment before the storm as the wise cow pony checks out his surroundings and waits for a cue. 

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I'm having a lot of fun with color these days. There's something about having all those pretty sticks of pastel just asking to be used. Here's a cowgirl warming up for a roping. All the cowgirls I know are hardworking, independent, strong-willed and tough enough to know what they want out of life and what they have to do to get it. 

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The Quick Draw and Auction was a record success at the Bucking Horse Sale in Miles City! There were more than 20 nervous artists creating paintings, sculptures and pottery in just 3o minutes with no presketching allowed. It was a great turnout and the crowd was ready to bid. The total amount raised was over $11,000 which is a record, as was the average price per piece. I was thrilled to watch as two people bid against each other on my pastel, "Capture", which sold at $1750, the top selling lot of the day! I did not get a photo of the final artwork, but here is a similar painting, "Picking Up the Buckskin." It was the same subject of the pickup man and bronc, only coming straight at you so I only had to contend with the front image. Having 30 minutes to work with, the actual quick draw was very loose with just suggestions of detail, but this gives you an idea. 

I have been doing this Quick Draw at Miles City for almost 20 years!(geez I'm getting old!) but I LOVE the Waterworks Art Museum which is what the fundraiser is for. Formerly known as the Custer County Art Center, I like to say it is a shining gem on the prairie. Now hip and urban in feel, it was an old city water plant transformed into a very unique art museum, using the large cement holding tanks as the art galleries. Don't miss it if you are ever in southeastern Montana.  

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I am excited to announce being invited back to the North Dakota Cowboy Hall of Fame for the 2013 summer exhibit of "Cowboys & Indians - Alive and Well Today". It should be an interesting exhibit with paintings and drawings by Native American artists as well as the cowboy types! The Museum is situated next to the Theodore Roosevelt National Park in the beautiful badlands of Medora, North Dakota along the Little Missouri River. where you can hunt for (photograph) buffalo and wild horses. I hear there are already 26 new foals in the Park!  

Here are links to the Hall of Fame and Park:

http://www.northdakotacowboy.com

http://www.nps.gov/thro/index.htm

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I love to watch saddle bronc riding. As the gate opens, the broncs seems to explode into the arena and continue their fireworks as they try to unseat the determined cowboys.  This painting is currently available unframed. Price includes free shipping. 

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This original pastel of a wild bull ride will be available at the Custer County Art Center's 37th Annual Invitational Exhibit & Auction on Sept. 29, 2012. The Art Center is located in Miles City, Montana so stop by if you are in the area! There will also be a public reception on Sunday, August 19, 2012 from 1 - 4 pm.

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I am pleased and honored to announce that one of my works "Lanky Cowboy" which now resides in New York within the collection of Mr. Ken Ratner will be included in an exhibit at the Rockwell Museum of Western Art, Corning, New York. Mr. Ratner, a curator, lecturer and enthusiastic collector of masterworks by the "Ashcan School", European masters and contemporary Western artists is loaning part of his extensive collection to the Rockwell Museum for an exhibit. Works by Phil Epp, Logan Hagege, Gary Ernest Smith, John Sloan, Robert Henri and many more will also be included. The exhibit is called, "A Feeling of Humanity: Western Art from the Ken Ratner Collection" and will run from October 3, 2014 throught January 11, 2015.

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As an artist, I enjoy rodeos not only for the color and action but also for the opportunity to capture the figure in an intriquing moment. This cowboy seems to be contemplating his next ride at the rodeo.

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I love watching the pickup men at a rodeo - those guys have a lot of work to do and in a timely manner if the rodeo is to go on. They see alot of action! I also like to wonder what the horses think of each other - the wise, well-behaved one doing his job and the wild rebel he is chasing down.

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If it was easy, everyone would be doing it, right? Although I have never been on a real bronc, (oh, I've been bucked off a time or two, but pretty tame horses...) but as an artist, I can relate in some ways to a bronc rider, (bull rider, barrel racer, etc.) They strive and practice to get good enough to participate in a rodeo, investing time, energy, expense, sore muscles, broken bones, etc. just to get thrown off time after time, just to get back on and do it again. Why? Because, it's in their blood and they love it and when they do stay on the full 8 seconds, the thrill and rush makes all the pain go away for awhile.  They certainly don't do it for the money, because like many athletic professions, only the top hands get the real money.

Feel familiar, artists? Or anyone out there chasing a dream...you gotta love the ride, because you can't predict the outcome!

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I was pleased to find out this weekend that my pastel entitled "Lanky Cowboy" has been awarded an Honorable Mention at the 32nd Annual Juried Exhibit "Works on Paper" held at one of my favorite small museums, Custer County Art & Heritage Center located in Miles City, Montana. Judge of the exhibit was John Pollock, who has been teaching art at Montana State University at Billings for over 35 years and has received numerous award and honors for his work.

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Bulls are amazingly agile, especially considering their bulky size. This angry one whips around to take full revenge on the cowboy that was on his back just a few seconds ago.

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This pastel, "Dynamic Duo" has received several awards, the most recent being the "Spirit of the West Award" at the 2010 Western & Wild Horse Art Show in Rock Springs, WY. It also won a purchase award, so now has a new home...which is great and a touch bittersweet, as this painting always held a lot of meaning for me. Throughout the process of painting the little barrel racer on her powerful steed, I often thought of how much sacrifice and hard work it takes to make a dream come true -  how many "barrels" we must tip over to reach a cherished goal in the often dusty arena of life! I know other artists can relate to this!

The juror of awards was one of my favorite western artists, Ann Hanson, who crafts beautifully realistic renditions of horses and their people. Read More

I've been working on this painting for awhile now, tweaking it off and on and finally calling it good. I had never had an inkling as to what I was going to name it until tonight when I posted it. I started with the Grey Bronc...ok, pretty boring for a name, and I'm trying to portray action and excitement here. So I stopped to think back what captured my imagination in the first place on this one. I'm often amazed at the abilities of the bronc and the rider as they battle for the upper hand and how well matched they are. This was one of those battles... yes, they are both "tough enough" to win.
 
Ah! "Tough Enough" - good name. Then it occured to me that all week long I have been noticing the storefront windows of our town painted with the saying "Are you tough enough to wear pink?" (to the rodeo this weekend at our county fair), promoting breast cancer awareness. It then occured to me that the cowboy in my painting is wearing a shade of pink...cool. And since I am a breast cancer survivor of over a year now it all seemed to fall into place...serendipitous, subliminal or something!

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I believe it was Alanis Morrisette that sang that line in one of her songs, that she highly recommended "biting off more than you can chew". I decided to do just that when I tackled this painting. Normally I include every little detail in my oil paintings, but lately I've been trying to loosen it up and be more "painterly". So I used bigger brushes (on the advice of Kevin Macpherson's wonderful book "Fill Your Oil Paintings with Light and Color") and more paint than I normally use. I also tried a different composition with the point of interest on the far left side of the painting. There is plenty going on here, but if I had included the details in a tight realistic fashion, then the main idea would probably have been be lost in the busy-ness.

It's never easy jumping out of your comfort zone, but it is by far the best teacher. I will take everything I learned from this painting on to the next, and so on and on the learning journey goes... Read More

This painting challenged me to represents the things that I love about rodeo; the hot sunlight swirling through a constantly dry and dusty atmosphere, colors in bright sunlight, colors in shade, colors through dust and big bursts of energy and motion.
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We are told to "get out of our comfort zone" so I definitely did here, but only out of necessity! I normally use a sanded pastel paper when painting landscapes and rodeo because it forces me to focus on the big shapes and not get too nit-picky about details. I did not have any Wallis paper on hand (which is an even textured sanded paper), so decided to try a different brand that I had bought a while back. After sketching in the main shapes I started in on the painting and was immediately put off by the very rough texture. I thought "I am never going to finish this at this rate" because I couldn't get the pastels to cover at all.

I kept at it and alternately kept thinking that I needed to start over on a more familiar surface. I was getting more and more frustrated when I  happened to grab my kneaded eraser and decided to try scrubbing the pastel into the paper with the kneaded eraser. I liked the effect and continued on in that manner. Lay down some color and pretty much mixed it on the paper with a swipe of the eraser. It almost felt like painting oils with a brush and I really enjoyed the process. I'm sure I will try it again... when I remember what paper it was I was using! 

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I made a deliberate decision to use charcoal on sanded paper for the Rodeo Series, because it doesn't lend itself well to fine detail. That way I have been able to focus on the gesture and action of each event. This is the final drawing for this particular series.

When I am at a rodeo, I not only watch the main events, but I love watching the pickup men and rodeo clowns work, too. By the amount of time they spend in the arena, facing wild livestock, they are probably just as much at risk as the main competitors. They are swift, agile athletes and they have to know the animals and their moves.
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I have been working on a series of rodeo drawings in charcoal over the past few months. This is the 6th in the series. Like the others, I used the sanded paper for an interesting texture. The barrel racer has just rounded the third barrel and is launching into the race for the finish line. No barrels were knocked down, therefore the title, "Fast and Clean".

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