Hey guys so I want to make a couple paintings for the Coors Western Art Sale that they put up each year at National Western Stock Show. I've always wanted to get some watercolors in and either I've gotten a really fat head lately (likely) or well, maybe I've kinda' improved but I think I can get some work in next year's show. Soooo.... My landscape paintings lately haven't been that great, and I live in the 'burbs of Denver so it's not like I have a lot of reference photos of ranches, cowboys, etc. My question is, what do you guys think would be good western material that buyers would want on their walls that aren't landscapes???
Horses, definitely. Bison? Cowboys/girls? Cattle? Western shoes with spurs, hats and other western gear in a "still life"?
Campfire after the round-up. No beans though...
;0)
Branding, roping, The Marlboro Man look (without the smoke)
Those rocks with the twisted striations in them - or the tall stacks seen on westerns... (?)
Rodeo scenes, branding mavericks and the different signs, metal dish with baked beans on a stone in the shine of a campfire, Metall coffee pot and pitcher, saloon doors,, may be saloon scenes with square dance or musicians
Saddles, saddle blankets, spurs, guns, holsters, belts, dirt streets, wooden houses with shingle sides
Scene inside a saloon like a bartender in a suit... pouring a shot for a guy in sweat stained hat, dusty boots.
Have the guy's hat have the sweat stain bleeding though near the band, but it's sitting on the bar or on his knee... maybe in his hand... the cowboy is FILTHY... hard work... scruff... but make a line near his forehead that wraps around that is totally clean... as if his hat never came off... but that's the only part of him that is protected.
Saloon girl in a pleated dress, hanging off the shoulder... looking over at him, but with her hands on the shoulder of an older, cleaner, richer fellow who is playing cards.
Too complex? That's the image I'd do... I'm a painter myself. (but i paint a lot of people.)
cowboy playing a harmonica or a guitar.......
Cactus? Pick up trucks?A wild or angry looking bull?
Thanks guys!!! I'll let you know what I go with! :)