So I obviously like fly fishing, fishing, marine, sporting art…whatever you want to call it, but my favorite artwork to go look at in a gallery or museum is Western Art.  Growing up in Dallas, TX, I guess I kinda got that Texas ego where you where boots and cowboy hats even though you have never been on a horse or much less a bull, okay, I have dominated an electric bull.  When I moved to the west in 2000, I was in the mecca of Western Art, Jackson, WY.  This is where Wildlife Art and Western Art merge and the result is the finest artist and artwork living and breathing right in my midst.  My time in Jackson actually resulted in just about no artwork, none.  I lived there for 4 years and any time off, I fished or snowboarded.  I had a painting sit on an easel untouched for about a year and a half.  So, when I left Jackson and moved to Atlanta, I didn’t have the mountains, the western rivers or that certain feeling of the West that I had in Texas and Wyoming.

Here in Georgia is a town called Cartersville, and happens to have one of the top Western Art museums in the country….very random.  It took me 3 years to ever go visit it, mainly because I had high doubts that it could come anywhere close to the museums in Dallas.  IT BLEW ME AWAY!  The Booth Museum is a little jewel in a little GA town.  It rejuvenated my love of Western Art.

I started this painting 2 years ago and have let it sit.  It is a painting of a buddy of mine’s dad, David Carothers.  So, this week is finishing time.  I am going to re-wok the background and the greenery and try to finish it this week.  I am excited about this painting and hopefully it inspires me to do more Western Art.