Born to be a Cowboy

I have always painted the contemporary cowboy because I wanted to record my chapter of the west as I lived it.  I paint real  ranching people.  The few people I paint represent all in the ranching industry who remain nameless and faceless to the world.  The world calls them "Cowboy".  To me, they are each an individual with a unique life and story.

In 1984 I met a couple of cowboys who came down from Montana to do the fall works on the O6 Ranch near Alpine, Texas.  They were single men, free as tumble weeds blowing across the western plains.  I painted Ron and Dugan and titled the painting "AFTER HOURS".

I had not seen Ron since I had painted him in 1984, however we stayed in touch and he invited me to Montana this spring.  It turned out to be the ranch on which Charlie Russell worked and painted.  Ron is the cattle manager, and now ( a dozen years later),  he is a family man with a beautiful ranch wife and two great kids. A boy and a girl.

The ranch's huge red barn, with its great stalls, rows of saddles and tack is a wonderland in which to roam, living out childhood dreams and fantasies.  Ron's boy came into the barn's tack room in which I was working, he stood there watching me. The sunlight streamed across his face and I was struck with the thought - he is "born to be a cowboy". Surrounded by all the trappings of ranch life, he is born to it and living in it.  Cowboying is his way of life.

When I started painting the west, I never dreamed I would record generations.  Having painted the father as a young man, it is especially poignant now to paint his children.  Maybe, I'll get the chance to paint the third generation.