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

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Cleaning Day

18 x 24
2022
Charcoal on board
​
Available 

Growing up, my siblings and I would take all our tack and throw it on a stool or a couple chairs and use saddle soap and oil to clean all of it at once. 
This saddle belonged to my husband's aunt and she bought it used 50 some years ago from a local saddle repair place. She gave it to me recently. It is a Coggshall from Miles City, Montana.
The spurs were my dad's, the bridle was my mother's-in-law, the rawhide rope is a neighbor's, and everything else is just my own working stuff. 
The dynamite crate was a gift from an elderly friend whose occupation was blowing up ice clogs in Nebraska rivers. Each detail and scuff tells a story.
​This piece was done on mounted board so it is available without glazing as it is varnished like any other painting. 

Sufficient for the Day

18 x 24
2022
Charcoal on cotton paper
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Available through Settlers West Gallery March 25, 2023

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.

Cow Man

12 x 16
2022
Charcoal on board
​
Available

This is my first charcoal piece on board. I can see a lot of benefits to using board instead of paper. This piece was a test of a lot of new techniques for me. You will see them evidenced in some upcoming larger works.
This piece is framed and immediately available.

A Cold Start

20 x 29
2022
Charcoal
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Available through Settlers West Gallery March 25, 2023

For my viewers who have never lived in rougher, northern climes, unless your bridles are kept in a heated room, ideally you should warm the bits before bridling your horse to keep an ice cold bit from sticking to your horse's tongue. You wouldn't enjoy licking a frozen metal pole, and neither do they!
This piece features my brother-in-law saddling horses one early morning with a standard western bridle, an o-ring snaffle bit, and horse hair mecate reins.
Some of my pieces are inspired by historical poetry and this one was born of the thought behind Rudyard Kipling's poem "If..." 
If you can keep your head when all about you   
    Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,   
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
    But make allowance for their doubting too;   

If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
    Or being lied about, don’t deal in lies,
Or being hated, don’t give way to hating,
    And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise:

If you can dream—and not make dreams your master;   
    If you can think—and not make thoughts your aim;   
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
    And treat those two impostors just the same;   

If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken
    Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
    And stoop and build ’em up with worn-out tools:

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
    And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
    And never breathe a word about your loss;

If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
    To serve your turn long after they are gone,   
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
    Except the Will which says to them: ‘Hold on!’

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,   
    Or walk with Kings—nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
    If all men count with you, but none too much;
​
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
    With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run,   
Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,   
    And—which is more—you’ll be a Man, my son!

Hot Pursuit

33 x 19
2022
Charcoal
​
Available through Settlers West Gallery March 25, 2023

The body language of young horses is so different from that of older experienced horses. It was a pleasure to work on a more dynamic scene with body language, muscles, and speed!

Unwanted Hours

23 x 36
2022
Charcoal
​
Available

The invisible, unwanted hours of the day, those before dawn usually, provide the foundation upon which much visible success is built. Hardworking people, in agriculture and otherwise, exert their efforts in the dark, using hours that many people don't even know exist or ever have intention to use.

Separation Anxiety

9 x 12
2022
Charcoal
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Available through Settlers West Galleries: February 2023

Welcome Dawn

32 x 25
2022
Charcoal
​
Available through Settlers West Gallery March 25, 2023

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.

The Fencing Rig

43 x 29
2022
Charcoal
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Available through Settlers West Gallery March 25, 2023

This saddle was built between 1914 and 1930 in Alliance, Nebraska by Newberry custom saddles. It was a custom piece commissioned by someone with the initials E.P.H., but that individual's identity is lost to history. My grandfather bought this saddle used, left it to my dad, and now is in use by my sister. Growing up it meant a lot to me because I thought it was so historical and so fancy. Neither of those may be the case, but it has served many generations faithfully and stands a symbol of truly living in a saddle.
Note the fencing pliers and fencing staple bag. This saddle was used daily for moving cattle, but also for fixing any broken fence along the way.

Established

29 x 38
2022
Charcoal
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Available through Settlers West Gallery March 25, 2023

One of my prayers for my artwork and my general life is that God would "establish the work of my hands" because so often we can work so hard at something and feel it slip between our fingers. So it is the same with ranching; a lifetime spent building for another generation. I encourage you to pray that God would let your work be established and not in vain.
"Let the favor of the Lord our God be upon us, and establish the work of our hands upon us; yes, establish the work of our hands!" Psalm 90:17

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.

Rise and Shine

29 x 29
2022
​Charcoal and acrylic
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Available through Settlers West Gallery November 19, 2022

Purchase

​“Rise and Shine” depicts a young man and his horse, youthful in time, but skilled through experience. The sun is just rising on their lives, but they are “old hands” at their jobs. The focus of the piece is meant to be the man’s hands holding the rope with such practiced habit and his horse attentively awaiting his command.

Eight Days

8 x 14
2021
​Charcoal
​
Available

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
​
Available

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.

Vertical Reality Versions 1 & 2

21 x 13
2021
​Charcoal

Available

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
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Available through the Mountain Oyster Club, Tucson, AZ November 20, 2022

Purchase

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

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