Saddle-Oil Painting on Canvas

9" x 12" Oil painting on stretched canvas. Sold this little study at Benson Gallery in San Patricio, New Mexico. One of my favorite paintings. Wish I knew who owned it. As a footnote, I painted hundreds of saddle studies over the years. There is something special about re-creating the work of the saddle-artisan as well as the stories behind their owners and users. A cowboy's saddle was one of his most prized and liquid assets. As the story goes: If God had wanted man to walk, he would have given him four legs. As it was, he gave him only two...one for each side of a horse.

Tealights and onions

I had been to the market and just tossed a few veggies on my drawing board and went to work on some little studies. I was working on a slick plate-finish paper for effect. In the private collection of my youngest daughter.

Small field-study

I painted this study while sitting on the tailgate of my old blue pickup truck at Concho, Arizona. It was a fairly quiet morning and I could hear the nuns singing while working in their vegetable garden behind the church. One was hanging clothes. This was a very quick sketch on an Arches pad using Winsor and Newton tube colors and a John Pike palette.

Coe Ranch

A nice wet in wet watercolor example. This is the famous Coe Ranch in the Hondo Valley east of Ruidoso, NM. Billy Bonney reportedly hid out from the law at this ranch during the Lincoln County wars. 

Church at Taos, NM

Watercolor on Arches 140 lb paper. 11"x 14". I did this painting as a class demo at Oklahoma State University where I was teaching a watercolor class.