Available Works

All work is available through the artist unless otherwise listed.

For prices contact Rachel at:
402-591-1911
rachel.l.brownlee@gmail.com

Like Willows by the Watercourses

12 x 9
2021
Sepia Charcoal

Currently Unavailable

This piece is done in the style of old photography and focuses on differences in focal length and shading. The trees in the background fade away leading you to the possibility of the unseen stream weaving among them.
This piece has a custom frame by Montgomery Framing in Tempe, Az. It was framed with museum quality UV protecting plexiglass.
This piece was also featured in the February edition of Western Art Collector Magazine.

Who, me?

15 x 28
2022
Charcoal

Available

Cows are not dumb. They can feel your intentions like a radar before you even ride over a hill.
This cowboy rides out to rope a very saucy looking heifer, but she already knows what's up.
Technically, a few things I explored in this piece were the individual hair reflections on the hindquarters and tail. Also note the flowing and matted tail which is closer to the viewer and moving so it is blurry. I found the right foreleg really interesting and I love that it shows the bottom of the hoof, rarely seen in artwork, but amusing because hooves aren't always trimmed to beautiful circles.

Good Hands

29 x 29
2022
Charcoal and acrylic

Available

Eight Days

8 x 14
2021
Charcoal

Currently Unavailable

This piece has a custom frame by Montgomery Framing in Tempe, Az. It was framed with museum quality UV protecting plexiglass.

Velvet Hills

22 x 19
2022
Charcoal

Currently Unavailable

The Nebraska Sandhills have a unique ecology unlike almost anywhere in the world consisting of grass stabilized sand dunes. It is only about 20,000 square miles in size. Because it is such a small and unique area, I have rarely seen it depicted in western art even though the Sandhills are one of the remaining areas where traditional western life and work are still common. I think people have felt it is either too difficult to capture the soft beauty of the Sandhills or they mistakenly think the landscape is boring. I hope to clearly show the beauty of this place and its people over my career as an artist. I think, like the ocean, this is a place one has to spend a life looking at in order to see it.

I did this piece on Strathmore Bristol 500 cotton paper because it is incredibly smooth. Most charcoal artists avoid bristol because they need the "tooth" to hold charcoal. It is true that a rougher texture makes darker blacks easier, but bristol has a really unique advantage: it allows the me to "slide" the charcoal around and more easily achieve the velvety texture in this piece.

Content to Breathe

19 x 26
2021
Charcoal

Currently Unavailable

The title of this piece is based on Alexander Pope's poem "Ode to Solitude" which I think captures the modern cowboy/rancher/farmer quite well.

Happy the man, whose wish and care
A few paternal acres bound,
Content to breathe his native air,
In his own ground.
Whose herds with milk, whose fields with bread,
Whose flocks supply him with attire,
Whose trees in summer yield him shade,
In winter fire.
Blest, who can unconcernedly find
Hours, days, and years slide soft away,
In health of body, peace of mind,
Quiet by day,
Sound sleep by night; study and ease,
Together mixed; sweet recreation;
And innocence, which most does please,
With meditation.
Thus let me live, unseen, unknown;
Thus unlamented let me die;
Steal from the world, and not a stone
Tell where I lie.

Vertical Reality Versions 1 & 2

21 x 13
2021
Charcoal

Available through 2022 New Western Talent at the Western Gallery
https://western.gallery/exhibition/

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.

Old Fathers

22 x 28
2021
Charcoal

Available

Not every horse is considered attractive, but a storied life is beautiful. This piece celebrates the horses that have spent their life serving humanity in many ways. I love the different textures of hair on these two horses; all the way from downy soft, to wiry and hard. If you have ever pet an old Clydesdale you know the range of texture in your hand.

Mere Breath

24 x 34
2021
Charcoal

Available

This is the largest piece I've ever done. I wanted to show the drama of the piece, the movement of the horse, and light. Notice the textures of smooth harness, the weave of the ear net, and the shine of the silver. The title is based on Psalm 144: 4 "Man is like a mere breath; His days are like a passing shadow."

Cloud Rising

20 x 30
2021
Charcoal

Available through 2022 New Western Talent at the Western Gallery
https://western.gallery/exhibition/

This was an experimental piece on several fronts and I learned a lot from it that I now use in many of my pieces.

By the Sweat of Your Brow

22 x 28
2020
Charcoal

Available

I love the lighting on this piece from the translucency of the rope to the illuminated solid background to the bright reflection on the horse's face. I wanted to emphasize the clumped sweaty hair from a day of roping calves and the horse's attentive ears.

Chilly's Ire

8 x 10
2016
White charcoal on black paper

Available through 2022 New Western Talent at the Western Gallery
https://western.gallery/exhibition/

This piece was a an experiment, the first of many white charcoal pieces I would do over the next three years. It provides an expedited way to reveal highlights against a truly black surface.
Blue Chilly Bars was a horse I purchased at age 13 with my own money from ranch work. The horse and I were both green and we both knew it. She and I had a working relationship that lasted four years. She dumped me off countless times and turned around to come back at me when I was on the ground, stranded me miles from the headquarters, broke my back, and bucked her way through a crowded branding pen. We also worked cattle many days of the year, rode hundreds of miles, and learned a lot.
This is Chilly, staring me in the eye at the beginning of another work day, both of us trying to figure out who would win.

Prints are available for this piece.