Meat for Wagons 1925

Charles M. Russell made 'Meat for Wagons', and he did it in thin washes of watercolor, which is a tricky medium. I look at the colors running together, especially the yellow, and think of how hard it is to control the medium. He's got this narrative moment frozen, this one cowboy on horseback hunting buffalo. I wonder what he was thinking at the time. Maybe he was remembering a time he witnessed such an event or was even involved himself. What sort of person was he? What were his politics? That downward stroke of the buffalo tumbling down the hill is pretty great—it makes me want to try and do that myself, that kind of movement. Painting feels like an ongoing conversation, and I admire Russell’s take on the American West, even as I know my work is something else entirely.