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April 2009 Blog Posts (63)

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History International Channel: Sin City of the West

Howdy!

For those who haven't seen my Lost Worlds TV show, you should be able to catch it this Sunday at 2:00 (ET) on the History International Channel.

This one is about Deadwood.

I hope you can catch it!

Cheers,

Sherry

Added by Sherry Monahan on April 23, 2009 at 5:58am — 1 Comment

White Sands Dust Storm

April 22, 2009

Went home for lunch and utilized one of the art reference photos I took on our Billy the Kid trip last week:





The mountain range is inspired from a ridgeline on the White Sands Missile Range, on the way from Alamogordo to Las Cruces. Great pleated ridgeline close to Pat Garrett's ranch (which is on the missile range and you can't go there unless you clear it with the Air Force).



That's Mickey Free… Continue

Added by Bob Boze Bell on April 22, 2009 at 4:33pm — 2 Comments

Monk Maxwell: Last of The Wild Cow Catching Cowboys

April 22, 2009

The time before last when I was in Mogollon, New Mexico, I took Lew Jones out for breakfast at the Alma Grill (Alma is where Butch Cassidy, the Sundance Kid and Elzy Lay worked as cowboys and partied in the Alma Saloon). One of the cowboys at a nearby table recognized me from the Westerns Channel and after everyone else left, we chatted about cowboying and the West we love. Little did either of us know at the time but both of us were soon going to get our turn in the… Continue

Added by Bob Boze Bell on April 22, 2009 at 4:14pm — 6 Comments

The Cross Town Cowboys Make a Surprise Appearance at the Autry National Center

The Cross Town Cowboys treated listeners to an appearance at the Autry National Center of the American West monthly showcase for the first time last Sunday.

Those attending enjoyed the Cowboy’s spirited upbeat performance of Bob Nolan’s Skyball Paint, replete with western-style yodeling. The enthusiastic audience – old and young alike –were genuinely entertained, showing sincere appreciation for some “good old-fashioned cowboy music.” The only disappointment in this performance was that it… Continue

Added by The Cross Town Cowboys on April 21, 2009 at 2:30pm — 6 Comments

Scenes From A Plein Air Road Trip

April 21, 2009

Got home from our plein air art trip last night about 6:30. We covered over a thousand miles and really saw some great country. In fact, that's what we're kind of thinking about naming our art show in October: Capturing Billy the Kid Country.



Here's a shot from the road near Lincoln, New Mexico:





I believe that's Capitan Gap in the background. It was quite cold along the Mogollon Rim, with snow on… Continue

Added by Bob Boze Bell on April 21, 2009 at 11:30am — No Comments

Billy Jack Is Back!

April 20, 2009

Finally got to plein air paint yesterday up on a mesa below Mogollon, New Mexico. Had dinner with Lou and Tera Jones on the deck of their wonderful mining cabin. Went out to Monk Maxwell's ranch this morning. One of the last of the wild cow cowboys (he was also one of the rednecks who attacked Billy Jack in the movie of the same name, on the Prescott town square). Way out in the outback, beyond Alma civilization (which is far from civilization).



Tons of… Continue

Added by Bob Boze Bell on April 20, 2009 at 11:07am — 5 Comments

Howdy!

I'm new to this place but I can see what a fine and friendly group this is. I have Cindy Smith to thank for getting me involved.



We have a great Western Art Museum in this area, The Booth Western Art Museum. It is there I ran into Cindy she in turn got me started in the Cowboy scene. Currently I am involved with a group known as "Shadows of the Past" who do recreations of the Gunfight at the OK Coral. It has been great fun packin' a six gun and playing cowboy like I did so many years… Continue

Added by Jim Coker on April 20, 2009 at 5:28am — 2 Comments

Book Review on the 100th Anniversary of the Lynching of Jim Miller









James Brown Miller and Death in Oklahoma: Was Justice Denied in Ada?, Chuck Parsons (self-published, 2009), 64pp., $10.00.





James Brown Miller. “Killin’ Jim.” “Killer Miller.” “Deacon.”



By any name, Jim Miller is an Old West figure with plenty of life still in him—even 100 years after his demise. He’s the archetypical killer for hire, the tall, dark man dressed in black who brings death… Continue

Added by Mark Boardman on April 19, 2009 at 7:57am — 4 Comments

Peter Hurd Country

April 18, 2009

Didn't get to do any plein air painting yesterday (too windy and too cold), but we did take a bunch of reference photos and we visited the Peter Hurd Art Gallery and Museum in San Patricio. While we were there in came Michael Hurd (Peter's son) who is a painter and uses his father's studio. Michael's mother, was the famous Henriette Hurd (she was the daughter of the legendary illustrator N.C. Wyeth). I bought an Andrew Wyeth book for $100. Very cool. Great… Continue

Added by Bob Boze Bell on April 18, 2009 at 8:16am — 1 Comment

New Mexico: Country For Old Men

April 17, 2009

The Bell-Mell Road Trip landed in Lincoln, New Mexico last night. Had a great dinner at the Wortley Hotel (they opened the dining room just for us, thanks to Sue Lambert at True West). Had the chicken chipolte tacos and a great cobbler for dessert. Gary bought.



This morning I took the boys on a walking tour of the deadliest street in America (I think Fred Nolan documented some 135 killings on this one street before, during and after the Lincoln County War).… Continue

Added by Bob Boze Bell on April 17, 2009 at 11:30am — 2 Comments

A One Night Stand At The Mell Motel

April 15, 2009

Took Kathy to the doctor and she has walking pneumonia. Dropped off a prescription for antibiotics at Walgreen's. From there, I forced her to drive me down to the Phoenix Art Museum to see the Ernest Blummenschein Art Show. A spectacular show and so inspiring. From there Kathy dropped me off at Ed Mell's art studio where I met Ed and artist Gary Ernest Smith and we went from there to dinner with Ed and Rose Marie at the Havana Cafe. Had a great dinner (Ed bought) and… Continue

Added by Bob Boze Bell on April 15, 2009 at 10:00pm — 1 Comment

Cottonwood Springs Fight

April 14, 2009

Went home for lunch and whipped out a little Cottonwood Springs Fight gouache for the June issue (Classic Gunfights). Well, actually, whipped out is a tad of an understatement. I started at noon and finished at four. Ouch!





Pretty ambitious. Everyone wants to show the fight from Wyatt Earp's POV (myself included, see Classic Gunfights, Volume II: The 25 Gunfights Behind the O.K. Corral) but this time I… Continue

Added by Bob Boze Bell on April 14, 2009 at 5:12pm — 6 Comments

Outlaw Robert Bell—My Iowa Twin?

April 14, 2009

Remember that 1960s TV show based on the premise that everyone on the planet has an identical twin somewhere in the world? I want to say Ben Gazarra (sic) was in it and every week they would have the same actor play both characters, one usually a hit man and the other an innocent patsy?



I have often wondered what my life would have been like if my family had remained in Iowa. Well, a certain Robert Bell did stay in Iowa, Des Moines evidently, and as I… Continue

Added by Bob Boze Bell on April 14, 2009 at 10:30am — 1 Comment

ONE FANTASTIC EASTER!

Well last weekend was a great Easter weekend,,,spent time up on theranch with the kid's and grandkids,bbq'd up a bunch a grub and played horeseshoes,,fisheda little,,target practiced a little and of course the biggie,,hunte down the Eater egg's,,,alln all one great day,,,

Added by Rory McClain on April 14, 2009 at 9:39am — No Comments

Dust Storm, Part III

April 13, 2009

Went home for lunch and whipped out another prelude to a dust storm scene. This scene is earlier in the day as Powhattan Clark's scout takes Remington and crew up on the mesas coming out of the Salt River Canyon. Big thunderheads are already building up on the Mogollon Rim:





This is not an exageration, as these suckers stack straight up in August, dropping rain up on the rim and mostly dust storms on the rest… Continue

Added by Bob Boze Bell on April 13, 2009 at 5:18pm — 1 Comment

William Clarke Quantrill--Terrorist and War Criminal

A previous post continues to laud the inexcusable actions of William Clarke Quantrill during the Civil War. The poster does so without allowing any dissenting opinions, blocking responses to his outrageous comments.



Let's be clear: Jim Lane was no war hero, either. He engaged in terrible deeds that cannot be condoned.



But Abraham Lincoln did not order the murders at Osceola, MO, in which 13 men were put to death. Provide documentary proof--the document in which that order… Continue

Added by Mark Boardman on April 13, 2009 at 4:26pm — 7 Comments

Desert Dust Storm, Part II

April 13, 2009

Went over to Grandma Betty's for Easter yesterday. Great feed, lots of fun. Got home around 5:30 and worked on the Mickey Free desert dust storm sequence. Here are my prep sketches:





I realized a couple weeks ago we didn't have any scenes of cavalry in the field and I have great reference from several Ford movies, not to mention Remington's own sketches (which ironically were used extensively by John Ford to… Continue

Added by Bob Boze Bell on April 13, 2009 at 9:39am — 5 Comments

Rain Storms And Remington Dust Storms

April 12, 2009

Woke up to rain on Saturday. Sprinkled on and off all day. Deena and Frank came out, along with James Radina and his new girlfriend Jessica. We had a big breakfast feed: fresh laid eggs and Bobby Cakes, along with strawberries and cantalope and black berries. Afterwards we hiked over to the cave, in the rain, and I was suprised to see a new sign that gives some of the history of the cave. I was especially suprised because the copy says that U.S. soldiers fought… Continue

Added by Bob Boze Bell on April 12, 2009 at 7:36pm — 3 Comments

Last week I met with best selling author Stephen Coonts and discover he's a really nice man. While he's not a western writer, I'll not hold that against him. Since both of us spent years in the milit…



Last week I met with best selling author Stephen Coonts and discover he's a really nice man. While he's not a western writer, I'll not hold that against him. Since both of us spent years in the military, we communicated well and mostly about our service years.



The Emerald Cost Writers hosted a wonderful 3 day event and I even spoke to a few big city (NY) agents who kept telling me Western Fiction was dead, but like most cowboys, I… Continue

Added by W. R. Benton on April 11, 2009 at 6:58pm — No Comments

Beautiful Photos of Me And My Truck

April 10, 2009

The City of Scottsdale just mailed me four very nice, crisp photos of me and my truck:





What's cool about it is that it documents an important day in my life. This was Saturday, March 21, and I had spent the day out at Festival of the West, where I had a blast talking to all of the True West Maniacs who came by the booth. I left the festival grounds at Westworld, in north Scottsdale, at 4:30 and I was on my… Continue

Added by Bob Boze Bell on April 10, 2009 at 3:00pm — 10 Comments

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