Intrusions of Culture (Blog)

The 2022 En Plein Air Texas competition artists spent the first three days of the event scattered across west Texas, hosted on 18 ranches. I, along with one other artist, Bill Farnsworth, was assigned to the Upton Ranch, about 20 miles south of San Angelo, Texas.

The beauty, solitude and quiet of this place was an artist's dream with live oak hills, deer, wild turkey, sheep, goats, horses, cattle, and the most spectacular sunrises and sunsets I've ever seen.

The home we stayed in has been in the Upton family since 1921 and was the boyhood home of our host, Bud Upton. Bud is a fourth generation rancher, five-time NFR qualifier and a 2011 inductee in the Texas Rodeo Cowboy Hall of Fame. His wife Harriett has a deep love for horses which comes from spending childhood days with her Grandparents on the well known 6666's Ranch. Their daughters Candice and Maggie are now the fifth generation to own this ranch. These folks are the real deal! 

Below are three of my paintings from the ranch: Hugo and Finale / The Meeting Place / Broken Beauty.

I entered these three for the EPAT competition and they were part of my body-of-work that earned me the 'Best Artist from Texas' award from judge Michael Obermeyer.  

Hugo and Finale are the names of the two horses standing in the shade. The Meeting Place features one of the life giving water sources scattered around the ranch. This trough was continually visited by whitetail deer, wild turkey, cows and one owl while I painted from this spot. And finally, Broken Beauty is one of the numerous live oaks on the ranch. The Upton family blessed me by buying these first two paintings. They loved them and I'm truly happy to know that they will be hanging on their walls.

A big Texas THANK YOU to Bud, Harriett, Candice, Roy and Maggie who all went above and beyond by treating us like family. Not uncommon in this part of the world, but in true Texan fashion they didn't disappoint. They fed us, broke bread with us in the evenings, and took care of our every need. The only thing we had to concern ourselves with was with painting. And paint we did.