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"The Bribe"
It's sometimes difficult to catch your horse in the middle of the pasture, so a little bribe sometimes comes in handy. I taught my favorite horse to come when I whistled, because I saw Roy Rogers bring in Trigger that way. No matter how big the pasture was, if Judge could hear me, he'd come running.


"Sandstone And Stolen Horses"
This was originally going to be a long skinny vingete of running horses, but while I was still refining the sketch, Jeanne and I went to visit her uncle in Idaho. On the way, we stopped at Arches National Park where I did a plein-air painting and fell in love with the place. When we got home, I knew I had the perfect background for my running horses.


"Counting His Blessings"
Normally, I don't care for paintings that feature the rear view of the horse or cowboy. This painting is an exception because I could not think of a better way to tell this story. This cowboy is thankful for the good year he's had, and I thought I needed to show his ranch and cattle in the background. This is an example of how the title helps tell the story. Had I given it a more generic name, like "End Of A Long Day" it would not have said what I wanted it to. Like the cowbo


"The Best Of Times"
This young boy is with his two best friends, his grandfather and his dog. I was very close to my paternal grandfather, and although I'm in my seventies now, I vividly remember the many adventures we had together. This painting was done for my first book I did for Harvest House, "Everything I Know I Learned From My Grandpa".


"Into The Palo Duro"
This painting combines two of the things I most like to paint, a herd of horses and Palo Duro Canyon. My dad always told me that when I paint a group of horses that I should make sure each one looks different, not just different colors, but different confirmations as well. He must have made a strong impression on me because every time I start to draw a group of horses, I remember what he said.


"A Race With The Sun"
Of the dozens of action stagecoach paintings I've done, this is the first with the sunset. It's a good way to introduce some brighter colors, and it also emphasizes that the stage is behind schedule. In all my years of driving a stagecoach, I never went this fast, especially not downhill on a curve. Daddy would of killed me.


"Colorado Cowboy"
This painting's setting is one of my favorite places to paint in Colorado. It is the lake below the Maroon Bell's near Aspen. The location is so beautiful, I thought the only way to make it better was to add a cowboy on a good-looking palomino.


"Daisy"
To me, there's nothing prettier than a good-looking mare and colt standing in a field of wildflowers. Some of my favorite days as a painter have been spent in a pasture with several mares and foals in the spring.


"Singin' The Blues"
If you've ever been lucky enough to drive through Texas Hill Country when the bluebonnets are singing their loudest, it's something you'll never forget. The color is spell-binding and so bright it doesn't look real. God's palette has some bright colors.


"Enter The Law"
I did a series of paintings of Texas Rangers. This was one of the first, and my son Joshua was my model. Later, I asked him to grow a handle-bar mustache, which he did. His girlfriend at the time (now his wife) Alexis, hated it. I told him when it would curl on the end I would do the painting. It took several weeks of course, and he began to call me daily asking, "Can you please do the painting, Dad?" Eventually, I got to it, and he shaved the next day. It's hard being an art
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