Jam and three cute colts.

Got up yesterday morning pretty early and loaded some stuff and Beaver and headed out in the dark for the Artist Ride. I got down there and we just visited for quite awhile as the sky is so hazy from all the fires to the west of here, that the light wasn’t very good for pictures for the artists for quite awhile. then Gary Carter and John Phelps kept me pretty busy, along with some others setting up scenes they want to paint and needed to be able to see how the lighting would look on bent arms and such. Wayne Justus was there and I did a couple shoots with him also.

They are all good fellers and I enjoy working with them. All have been out and horseback with cowboys and ranchers and both John and Wayne have cowboy’d and worked on ranches for a living when they were younger, so they paint authentic scenes. I appreciate that.

Wayne sent a copy of a painting he did of Chance and Beaver, from last year and Gary gave me a framed drawing he did of a preliminary sketch that he did of Chance and me, for a painting he did. It’s really cool and looks real nice on the wall.
Anyone looking at it wouldn’t know it was Chance and I as he changed our features enough that we look like different people.

These are good people and real nice guys and I consider them all friends.

I wish I could have stayed over and spent more time with all them good folks, but maybe next year.

At least it was easier to get up this morning as I didn’t set around a camp fire half of the night last night, BS’ing and taking in adult beverages!

And Wayne brought his fiddle and I got to play guitar with him. Might have been the high point for me! 🙂

And by the way, I am not supposed to take pictures of the Ride and post them on here. That is what the artists do and I am a model. Sorry.

Anyone interested in it, let me know and if you want to go to the work of getting an outfit together (or two or three or ten!) let me know. You need to be historicly authentic and know all about your gear to explain to, those who don’t know, what and why you are wearing what you are. And then you need to get an invite. tho’ we have a lot of fun, this is business and not for tourists. Maybe thats why it’s so much fun. Not everybody gets to go to it.

Just check out much of the Western Art these days and you will see paintings done that come from the Artist Ride. If your not sure, ask me and I will probably recognize the models or the landscape.