Thursday, January 22, 2009

"Wranglin' for a Wreck"

















16 x 20" oil/linen panel
For purchase information click here.

I attended a rodeo awhile back and got some great photos of horses. This painting started to be about the horse roping a calf. I loved how he was rolling back to face the calf. But as you know, I'm not one for ordinary subjects. No offense to all you cowboy artists, but how many calf roping paintings do we need? So how about this big ol' grizzly instead?
I actually know someone who did this when he was a kid cowboying up near Dupuyer, Montana. And this painting is a tribute to that story. He got lucky and the bear climbed a tree. I put the landscape around Dupuyer in this painting for that reason.
Charlie Russell did a painting much like this called "Roping a Rustler."