It's About to Get Western
24 x 18
charcoal on panel

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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.