February 2011 Blog Posts (36)

February 28, 2011

   Woke up to snow on Sunday morning. Big snow clouds. Did three quick studies:

And here's number two:

 …

February 26, 2011

   Had to put Peaches down yesterday. Advanced cancer of the lymph nodes. She was active right up to the end, taking on a neighboring dog just two days ago on our walk, forcing the intruder off the road with an aggressive snap to the neck. As my neighbor Tom Augherton put it, "She was definitely an alpha female." My son T. Charles put it a little more bluntly, "She was a bitch, but she was OUR bitch."

   I loved that Aussie-sheep…

February 25, 2011

   Got a peek at the uncorrected proofs of Jeff Guinn's new book "The Last Gunfight" this morning. Jeff is the author of "Go Down Together" the sordid and masterfully written tale of the real Bonnie & Clyde. Jeff interviewed me and many other Tombstone-Earp authors almost two years ago in Prescott when we were all attending the Arizona History Conference at the Hassayampa Hotel. Jeff's subhead to the title is: "The Real Story of the Shootout at…

February 24, 2011

   Still noodling the Last Light On Morningstar piece. Took a slightly different approach on the angle last night, with this version. Better background mesa, but Sugarloaf is still not quite right:

It's a magnificent landmark in my…

February 23, 2011

   Well, I have been threatening to do this for a couple months, but Robert Ray finally came in my office after lunch today and said, "When can you make time to go to your studio and allow me to video tape you showing everyone this Failure Pile you keep talking about?"

   I looked at the unfinished stack of pending business on my desk and replied, "How about right now?"

   So we drove out to my studio (about three…

February 23, 2011

   Last night I walked up Old Stage Road to about Barros' and waited for the sun to sink behind the Seven Sisters. At 6:15 the magic started happening as the desert floor started going dark and a sliver of light arced up the ridge to the south of Sugarloaf and lit up a lone adobe house at the top of Morningstar. Came back to the studio and took a second stab at the effect:

 …

February 22, 2011

   Went home for lunch and worked on an aerial illustrated map for Orme Ranch. Got some working sketches going. Then shifted gears and whipped out a patina painting study, just pushing gray-green paint around to see where it goes.

   Let it set up, went over to the house and took a shower. Came back and grabbed it to take into the office. Very interesting:

 …

February 22, 2011

   Yesterday, champion CMSA (Cowboy Mounted Shooting Assoc.) shooter Denny Chapman from Ocala, Florida came in to see the True West World Headquarters. He is in town for Winter Range which starts tomorrow out at Ben Avery Shooting Range. Enjoyed talking to him and his gun sponsor, Miss Sue Hawkins of Taylor & Co. Firearms. You may have seen Denny on the History Channel's show "Top Shot."

   Grabbed a small study out of my failure…

February 21, 2011

   Been up against it, getting the April issue out to the printer. Final approval on all files sent to RR Donnelley north of Kansas City, at noon today. Robert Ray then shifted gears and uploaded the video shot by Abby Goodrich last Friday when Brian Lebel brought out the actual ferrotype of Billy the Kid. We have footage of him first showing us the ferrotype and we are flipping around like a bunch of school girls at a sleepover, but then someone…

February 21, 2011

   Worked on several studies this weekend. While on a walk Friday evening, I witnessed a twilight phenom on the ridges below Fortification Rock and Sugarloaf Butte, both of which are directly north of my house. As the sun sank in the west, deep shadows enveloped the rim above Sugarloaf Butte, but a narrow sliver of light arced up a low ridge and lit up an adobe home at the top of Morning Star Road. Came back to the studio and whipped this out from…

Here's the reference for the use of the term:

February 18, 2011

   Thanks to lobbying by Robert Ray, I am working on a new Classic Gunfights, this one The Battle of Battle Flat, which took place on June 2, 1864 between American prospectors and Apaches "on a flat in the valley of Turkey Creek, near the junction of that stream with Tuscumbia Creek, almost twenty miles southeast of present-day Prescott, Arizona," according to Frontier Times, May, 1967. Anybody know about that fight? Or, where exactly the…

February 17, 2011

   Brian Lebel arrived this morning at about 10:30 with a black, canvas carrying bag. We went into the conference room and he opened it slowly and pulled out several encased packages. Slowly, and carefully unwrapping them, he placed on the table a matted, off white frame without the glass. In the center was a small piece of rectangle metal, about the size of a baseball trading card.

   According to Brian, I am the third person to look…

February 17, 2011

   As most of you know, the one and only Billy the Kid tintype is going up for auction this summer and is expected to bring $300,000 to $500,000. Why so much? Well, of the four taken, it is the only known surviving image of the Kid AND the Kid actually held it in his hand (in fact, he put it in the pocket of the sweater he is wearing in the photo and the thread pattern adhered to the surface of the photo).

 …

February 16, 2011

   Ever since I attended that ADD seminar last October (that Kathy made me go to!) I have committed fifteen minutes every morning to a new project. Why? Because. . .

"Setting a goal and sticking to it changes everything."

—Old Procrastinator Saying 

Yesterday, I finished the last page of notes for a new Wyatt Earp-Curly Bill time travel story (120 pages of entries starting on October 30, 2011 and ending…

February 15, 2011

   Just had lunch with Joe Freedman, Al Huffman and Brian Downes the executive director at the Birthplace of John Wayne Museum in Winterset, Iowa. Walked next door to Jena's Cafe and had the homemade soup and sando. Great talking to them about all things John Wayne. Brian informs me they have acquired the famous customized automobile with the bubble roof so John Wayne could get his 6'4" frame into the car and still wear his cowboy hat. I challenged…

February 14, 2011

   Happy 99th Birthday to Arizona! I remember the fifty year celebration in 1962 and, in fact, own two of the Arizona Republic's special edition commemorative issues (about the only businesses listed in the book that are still in business are Durant's Restaurant—amazing!—and the Arizona Republic itself, although somewhat diminished in reach and clout). And, I was at the Arizona Highways magazine offices for the 75th…

February 12, 2011

   Left the house at 6:20 this morning and met Joe Freedman and his wife Linda and their son Jacob at the office, then took off in separate vehicles for Wickenburg. I drove my Ranger with the back loaded with 1,390 back issues. Enjoyed the drive over in the predawn silence. No radio, just enjoyed the desert coming alive. When I topped out just past Lake Pleasant, the western sky began to lighten with a darker blue on the bottom, then a rose band of…

February 11, 2011

   Going over in the morning to Wickenburg to be in the Gold Rush Days parade at ten in the morning. Joe Freedman and I have a dozen other Old West people who will join us. Meanwhile, Dave Daiss is going to be representing True West at the Bascom Affair down at Fort Bowie. Dave and his pards are going to ride into the Apache Pass area where Cochise and Lt. Bascom had their little dust up. Sorry I can't do both. Really wanted to join John Langellier…

February 11, 2011

   Talked on the phone to the great Texas actor Barry Corbin yesterday. Really a thrill for me. Barry has a long career (he was the astronaut in the popular TV show Northern Exposure) and I told him he absolutely nailed it in No Country For Old Men. Towards the end of the movie, Tommy Lee Jones as Sheriff Bell goes to visit his uncle (Corbin) who tells about how one of their kin was killed by In-dins, "They was wantin' this and…