All Parts of the Buffalo

In the process of working on my latest, yet to be posted painting, there has been lots of painters tape used for the text. After carving it out with my trusty exacto blade I was left with all of these great little pieces of tape. Rather than sticking the refuse to my jeans and turning myself blue, I grabbed some ranch stationary to stick the pieces to, just so that they weren't littering me or my tidy lil' workspace. Without paying attention to what I was doing, I looked over and saw this great character emerging from the placement of the tape. Thus was born, the Painter's Tape Character Studies, arising from the text for my upcoming painting, Welcome To Our Beautiful Westland.

Tired? Pull on in for a good nights rest...

"Permanent Overnite"

16" x 26"

I saw this same sunset on my way back from a frozen photo-excursion out here in Wyoming one day last week. It really was brilliant and that night I came back to the studio and began to lay this out. While working on this imaginary sign, it came to my attention that the owners must be some hardy immigrants (an Indian family maybe?) that were just trying to make an honest living in the rugged west. Touching and re touching the paint job on their sign. Making repairs to the weather beaten wood. Trying to represent a safe and cozy night in a harsh and sometimes unwelcoming landscape. At one point they tried to bolster interest by offering WiFi, but given the recent decline in tourism could no longer justify the expense. They also stopped serving "Free" breakfast around that time but got too many complaints from the few travelers they still hosted, so they once again started to lay out miniature boxes of Frosted Flakes to accompany the half rotten fruit and stale yet still soft danishes.