2011

THE NOSTALGIC HISTORIC DOWNTOWN SERIES

• In November of 2007, Mike painted "Christmas on Main," a nostalgic rendition of Old Towne Bastrop.  We donated the painting and a few prints to the Festival of Trees benefit auction supporting the local Crisis Center.  Always the history buff, he ended up doing two more of the downtown area, one of which Leanin' Tree published as a Christmas card in 2008  Mike enjoyed doing the paintings so much, we decided to launch the Historic Downtown Series a series featuring some of the wonderful small communities we've discovered.  The next town he chose was Ritzville, Washington, where he found a wealth of history and a whole slew of folks who love that history.  The first two paintings of Ritzville are "This storm too shall pass" and  "The Hide Chasers."  

• Mike is having a really good time scouting out the next two towns he wants to paint.  There are several in Texas and a couple in New Mexico he has his eye on.

2010 Art Show Schedule

We did make it to the Ritzville, Washington show in May and it was fabulous.  Great little town, super nice people, very conscientious show committee and a bevy of fine artists to boot.  It was really wonderful to finally meet some of the star players there face-to-face and see the historical downtown in person.  Looking forward to doing that show again next year. 

Once again, the Cowboy Cartoonists will be descending on Las Vegas during the annual Cowboy Christmas show and sale and the National Finals Rodeo.  This is a long show but it's always a blast to do.  I see more friends, family and outlaws during that two weeks of the year than I do the whole dang year long.  This is the one show where the cream of the crop shows all their new stuff - so if you're gonna make just one, this is the one to make.

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