My Newest Longhorn Sculpture

Leading the Way- Old Blue
11 x 5 x 8
bronze on granite
$1,200

     I just picked my newest bronze sculpture up from the foundry yesterday. It is a longhorn representing Old Blue, a longhorn steer belonging to Colonel Charles Goodnight. Old Blue wore a bell around his neck and lead Goodnight's herds 8 times north on the Chisholm Trail. He was something of a pet and lived to be 20 years old. When Old Blue died, Goodnight mounted the horns in his office.
     I will have this and many other sculptures at David Dike Fine Art where I will be doing a sculpture demonstration on April 21st, 2:00 to 8:00. The address is2613 Fairmount Street, Dallas, TX. 75201.
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More from Fort Worth

Fort Worth Livestock Exchange
8 x 10
oil on canvas
$350

 On Sunday I went to the Stock Yards to paint with my friend Olivette Hubler. It was a very nice day, sometimes cloudy but wonderful for January. I began by painting the Fort worth Livestock Exchange building.

My painting and the subject.

 There were many tourists as usual. People come from all over the world to Texas to see and experience the Old West and this is one of the best places I know of to experience remnants of that period of history which is gone but not forgotten.

Me, painting on Exchange Street.

The livestock exchange is one of the most beautiful buildings in the stock yards. Once it was a great place of business and commerce. Now I think a museum is in it and some offices. During the summer various demonstrations and events (like armadillo races) are held on its lawn.

Stage coach on Exchange Street

Every weekend there are stage coach rides, cattle drives and other events. It is an experience meant to be a pleasure for the entire family. I truly enjoy painting here and although this is my home always feel like a bit of a tourist myself while I am here.

The colors of Winter
8 x 10
oil on panel
$300

 After painting on Exchange Street, Olivette and I had lunch at Riskys and then walked over a street to a totally different view. This is an area near the train tracks for the steam locomotive that comes into the stock yards. There is an old house, windmill, and great clumps of sage and cactus.

Olivette on the other side of the tracks.

 These photos were taken when the sky was clearer and there was more color. But while I painted my painting it was very overcast and everything was shades of gray and pale blue greens, except for the winter grasses which were a bright and beautiful green.

The old house and cacti.

 I had driven by this site many times and always desired to paint it. I am very glad that we painted here today. This is a small site but it has the feel and look of being far from the city. I will be sure to come back again and perhaps try painting a scene of the house and windmill as Olivette did.

A young longhorn cow with her first calf.

On Tuesday evening I went to the Fort Worth Stock Show. I've always enjoyed this from my childhood when I used to go and watch my cousins show their Hereford cattle.This event lasts several weeks. Every few days new breeds of animals are brought  to the show. The longhorns were going out today so I made a point of going to work on my longhorn sculpture while they were still there. The great thing about sculpting at the stock show was being able to work right up close to the animals. I was able to make some very important changes to my sculpture. I may go back and sculpt a Hereford  or Angus before the show ends. (I had a pet Angus calf that my grandmother bought me when I was about eight.)

Me sculpting, using a  young longhorn as my model.

New longhorn sculpture

Mother and Child
12 x 9.5 x 8
bronze on granite
$2700

This is my newest sculpture, a longhorn cow with a calf. I haven't settled on my title yet.  I just got it back from the foundry this week. This is my first sculpture with multiple figures on one  base.  I  worked on it from life at the Fort Worth Stockyards and from photos I took of the longhorns at the Fort Worth Stock Show. I spent over two years working on it before deciding that I was pleased  with it and ready to cast. I work on a piece, set it aside, and then come back to it over and over to try and keep looking at it with fresh eyes. I make lots of changes as I work. One of the things I've found is that once I change one thing I wind up having to change many other things so that the sculpture continues to work as an entire piece. I'm always so excited to see each piece as it is completed and equally eager to show them to family and friends to get their opinions.

A work in progress

A new longhorn sculpture

Here's a new longhorn sculpture that I'm working on. I hope to have it ready to cast by later in the summer or at least by early fall. I've actually got a few new pieces about ready to go but I'm not sure what order I'll do them in.

Work in Progress

longhorn cow and calf
work in progress in clay

I started work on this piece almost two years ago and started working on it again last night as my demo at the opening of my show at the Southwestern Adventist University. The light was not really that great for working on art but I think I'm pretty close if I put in some quality time working on it. I'm still working on simplifying the plants around the feet of the cattle. I try to have the most details around the faces of the animal and get looser the further away. This is basically the same principal as painting and having the sharpest edges around the center of interest.

Don't Mess With Texas

Don't Mess With Texas
9  x 4.5 x 5.5
bronze on wood
$900

This is my newest longhorn sculpture, and one of the pieces that will be in my art show with my great friend Sheri Jones at the Southwestern Adventist University next week. I finally made it to her solo show at Granbury last week. It was a great show. She sold many of her paintings. She really is a master of color. I haven't posted  a painting since Monday. I've started three this week, but I've been out of town and also working on my taxes so I haven't had the time to do as much painting as I would like. Hopefully once I take care of my taxes I'll have more time.

True Texan

True Texan
7 x 5 x 5.5
bronze on granite
$650

This is another of the sculptures that I have at the Insight Gallery. The first few were on wood, but now I always have them mounted on granite. I sculpted this one down in the Fort Worth Stock Yards. The longhorns there have got to be the most plump longhorns in all of Texas. So, I slimmed him down quite a bit to make him look like he has been living out on the open range.

Repose

Repose
6x4x4
Bronze on Granite
Edition of 100
$600

My dad had surgery this week and all is going great, thanks to God and great medical care. However, I didn't have much of a chance to paint the last few days so I'm showing one of my sculptures that I have at the Insight Gallery where I will be part of the Texas Stampede show next week. I'll be painting today, so I should have something new to add later today or tomorrow.

Texas Stampede Invitational Show and Sale

Native Texan



Gone Fishing

Here are the two sculptures that I am going to put in the Insight Gallery's Texas Stampede show. I was going to mail them today, but thanks to our snow and sleet that is probably not going to happen. The show's reception is on March 4th in Fredericksburg in the gallery's new location, just down the block from the old location.