Available Works
All work is available through the artist unless otherwise listed.
Prairie snows are so interesting because the ground and the sky can be the same value. Even the sun can disappear, part of the gray, yet light of those days. The ice clings to the soap weed spikes, breaking off with a rattle as horses graze by them. The ice falls down into a the pillow of snow, leaving a hole. It is cold and makes life harder, yet easier at the same time because the death of the plants on the surface of the ground creates new life under the snow for next year's grass. The harsh Sandhills desert could not produce the life that it does without this yearly death.
This piece features a Colt 38 special revolver, playing cards, and some antique White Horse Whisky bottles. The bottles were found under the Spade Ranch barn. Because they were produced by White Horse Distillers Lmd., they must have been produced after 1924 in Glasgow, Scotland. I am personally impressed that some cowboys making $40 a month managed to get imported scotch whisky out to western Nebraska.
Spade Ranch cowboys weren't allowed to drink or gamble, but it is documented that it did happen and in one particular case, one cowboy was disgruntled at his losses and did hit another over the head the next morning while working cattle. The injured cowboy died and the perpetrator was convicted of manslaughter, served his time in the Nebraska penitentiary, and then returned to work at the Spade Ranch again. It did used to be the wild west out here, and not that long ago.
This is just a spotlight moment of what a bunkhouse "table" (crate) might have looked like one of those nights at the ranch.
This saddle belonged to my husband's grand-father. His father came from Wisconsin to Nebraska in 1885 hoping to build a dairy like he had worked at in Wisconsin. He found the Nebraska Sandhills incompatible with that kind of agriculture. Instead he built a large cattle ranch with a partner. He was unfortunately injured while fighting the prairie fire that consumed the entire ranch headquarters. The family had to sell the ranch and move to town. His son worked very hard his entire life to regain the family place. He was successful at his goal and did eventually buy back his family's ranch and two others, one of which I live on today. Do any of us stand alone in our accomplishments? Probably most of us stand on the shoulders of many others' struggles and successes. At some point in his life he purchased this Coggshall saddle in the tulip pattern and rode it until he died. It is still usable today.
The young men on the trail from Texas going north were often 13-18 years old. They grew up quickly and even before "there was enough hair on their faces to catch dust" they were men. They ate a hard bread called "pan de campo" known as "Trail bread".
Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble. Matthew 6:24
Aesthetically, I love this piece for the calm it shows. Here is a working horse, a well trained horse as evidenced by the tack, and here he is, all dressed for work, but without a bridle and grazing hobbled. It is another image of working life seldom seen, the waiting part of work! It is a relatively small piece, but I still wanted to focus on the beautiful details in the horse's hair and the tack. The lighting is bright, but undefined. I barely used a brush on this piece which is a rarity for me now. In fact, I hardly blended the charcoal on this piece. So much of it was so specific that I just drew it on and left it with minimal layering. This piece was such a pleasure to do. |
R.E. Lamble and his horse Missy graced us with their presence at our branding again this year. Some people grow into the land and animals over their lifetime and they reflect the land; how it moves and acts. Their body language and movement reflects the softness, or hardness, of the land they've spent their life on. R.E. ropes gracefully and with fewer motions than most of the people around him. Missy doesn't waste a step. They are a team sculpted in time.
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This isn't a common style for my previous work, but I was so struck by our corral at sunset with the uneven posts reaching into the sky and the unsettling amount of curvature in the supposedly straight metal pole fence.
So many times in life, and in artwork we have a perception about something in our head and it isn't accurate to life. If asked to draw a corral I would draw a straight fence, perhaps curving with the land, but that would not account for time and animals wearing on the fence. |