This is a 30 by 40 inch oil on canvas painting. A good friend of mine moved to Florida. She sent me a few pictures of her apartment. I asked her if she wanted a painting to fill a large space on an empty wall. She jumped at the offer. She wanted a painting in the same style containing an old west cowboy like a small painting I have given her in New Mexico. I mulled it over for a few days and as usual at about three in the morning it came to me. I reviewed several photographs I took of Chaco Canyon and some pictures I took of a Pat Garrett statue in Roswell. I then did the Photoshop thing to get the placement and composition I wanted to convey the idea of two cowboys searching in a large empty landscape that was beautiful and dangerous at the same time. The sky had to also look big, beautiful and busy carrying its own story oblivious of what was going on beneath, just like the beautiful land ignored the trespassers. When I was constructing the scene I had a nervous twitch on my mouse and in the center appeared a large flat smudge. It looked like a lake. I liked it and it became the lake in the painting. Just love it when serendipity like that happens. This painting is a combination of pallet knife strokes, rough brush and fine brush work. It took me about two months to finish it. Of course that is mostly because other life things kept intervening. I hope all enjoy looking at. My friend loved it.