Some of My Favorite Subjects!

 These are sketches from my branding pictures.
I am still going through them and enjoying them all over again. I LOVE saddles, bridles, spurs, etc. so I have enjoyed doing these.
They are done with the Lexington Gray ink, with some Tombow marker.
The second saddle is just with the pen/ink.

The Fence Post at the bottom has some
'Elegant' Writer with water. That is where the color comes from.
The Elegant writer is for calligraphy, but it makes awesome shadows.

Texas Wild Flowers

Texas Wild Flowers

Since we haven't had ANY rain at all, I thought I would add these little wild flowers.  I took a picture of clumps of them, growing in the pastures just West of town several years ago.  They are so pretty when in full bloom. I don't know the real name for them, but they are beautiful growing in and out of the barbed wire.  Maybe we will have some blooming soon!

This painting was done first with transparent watercolor, then I painted over it with gouache leaving a little bit of the paint showing.  For those of you who don't know what gouache is...pronounced gwash...it is watercolor but it is opaque. It has a chalky appearance.

"A Farmers Nightmare"

This is truly a nightmare in a cotton crop. I love them though. They are tall and gangling but so pretty. They dance around as the wind blows them back and forth. They grow all along the turn rows, and the county roads. AND in our cotton!

This was from a photo that I took by our house. We have a barbed wire fence, and here was this lonely sunflower (not the correct name) and the sky was a gorgeous blue color that day. I got down and took it looking up at it to get all the fence. I have wanted to paint it for a while. I did NOT do it justice.

This is the first painting that I have done that is all gouache. Now I wish I had exaggerated the flowers ! Made them even bigger than they really are.

It is 12.5"x36"