Ysleta Pueblo is the ancestral home of the the Tigua people, a tribe of Native Americans.  The Mission, first constructed in 1680, is the central point of their home which is now  located southeast of El Paso in the lower Rio Grande Valley.  I have a certain affinity for the Tiqua people and Ysleta.  My friends father, an El Paso attorney, took on the cause of the Tigua in the 1960's.  He would take us young boys along with him to Ysleta when he meet with tribal leaders.  

oil on canvas 22 x 28 2017

This painting, an acrylic on canvas, is of no place in particular.   It came from my imagination with some unrelated references combined to make the composition.   The name comes from a spot along the Highway between El Paso and Chihuahua City, Chihuahua Mexico.  My brother and I used to travel this route with our friend every summer to spend some time in his home in Mexico.  El Sueco was just a gas station along the way and you would hope it was open.  

acrylic on canvas 24 X 36 2016

From the Partin Ranch

oil on canvas. 24 x 30 2018

The Organ Mountains are a part of the lower Rocky Mountain range and located near Las Cruces New Mexico about 30 miles north of my boyhood home in the Upper Rio Grande Valley near El Paso Texas.   As a boy and young man I spent much time in these mountains.  

oil on canvas 22 x 28 2017

Recently I was listening to a Paul Simmon song and one of the lyrics went “Dogs in the Moon Light”. It reminded me of my teens when my brother, our friends, and I used to go out to Strauss New Mexico and hunt coyotes in the early morning before school. The ranchers in the area appreciated the effort as the coyotes would prey on their cattle.

The source is my remembrance, imagination, and an old photo of the Potrillo Mountains in the background. This was Bureau of Land Management territory in southern New Mexico along the Mexican border and about 7 or 8 miles from my boyhood home in El Paso TX along the Rio Grande river.

oil on canvas 20 x 24 2018

In the Big Bend region of Texas, the night sky is filled with billions of stars and the Milky Way. This painting is a rendering of that nightly scene from a Ranch near Marathon Texas.

oil on canvas 24 x 36 2018 Sold

The reference for this oil on canvas was from a photo by my friend Wayne Wendel who is a talented and internationally published photographer.   Wayne shares my love of God's creation which he expresses through photography.   

oil on canvas  18 x 24 2017

In 1789 the Spaniards created the Presidio (Military Fort) de San Elizario, to protect travelers along the Camino Real which ran from Mexico City to Santa Fe New Mexico.  This is my imaginative rendering of the current chapel which had fallen into ruins and rebuilt in 1882. 

At Christmas time the chapel is decorated at night with Luminarias (lanterns), a paper sack lit by a candle on sand inside.   The communities of San Elizario, Socorro and Ysleta are very picturesque at night around Christmas.  Luminarias are very popular in the El Paso community on Christmas Eve and during Las Posadas, the days leading up to Christmas.  My brother and I used to put them out on Christmas Eve at our family home.  

Oil on canvas. 22 x 28.  2018

This oil on canvas was also inspired by a photograph from my friend and internationally published photographer, Wayne Wendel.  

oil on canvas 18 x 24  2017  Sold

The reference for this painting, an acrylic on canvas, was a photo that my daughter took on a camping and hiking trip to Cold Mountain North Carolina.  One afternoon she looked up into the forest trees and took this photo.  

acrylic on canvas 30 x 30 2016

This painting is a look at immigrant farm workers in the upper Rio Grande valley done in the style of Paul Gauguin and Thomas Hart Benton.

oil on canvas. 20 x 28. 2018.

This is another attempt of mine to capture the Big Bend night sky with paint on canvas. This is done with an acrylic pour for the sky and acrylic paint with heavy gel applied with palette knife for the strange Chimney rock formations found near Terlingua Texas.

Acrylic paint with pouring medium and heavy gloss gel on canvas. 24 x 36. 2018

This Triptych was “commissioned “ by my wife, to set on the wall over our TV.

Oil on canvas, 3 panels. 18x24, 20x24 & 18x24. 2018