The Real Value of True West

 June 25, 2026

   I was pleasantly surprised by the many positive responses to my painting of The Lone Kitchen Light. However, it got me to thinking, in terms of an old vaquero saying perhaps the illustration should be a tad more adobe than the mountain cabin I portrayed earlier?

Daily Reworked Whip Out:

"Lone Adobe Kitchen Light"

"All houses are dark until the mother wakes up."

—Old Vaquero Saying   

   I've been encouraged by friends in Payson to submit a rodeo poster concept so I've been having fun doing a few broncs after breakfast. Yes, that is a riff on the title to one of Charlie Russell's best paintings. Here is just one of the sketch ideas I am pursuing.

Daily Whip Out: "Red Sky Bucker"

   Ken and I have been talking to several parties about taking over the True West brand and if waxing poetically has anything to do with the proposal, I believe this guy takes the cake.

   "True West has greater gist and substance than simply as a media property.  True West embodies the passion of thousands who value Western history and lore. Forgive the waxing poetic, but property can be bought and sold; the passion of your readers cannot."  

—Dan Williams, TCU Press

"Misfortunes one can endure. But to suffer for one's own faults? Ah! There is the sting of life."
—Oscar Wilde