ARTIST: Bruce Brock (Kansas, 20/21 century)
NAME: Cowboy on Horse with Dog
YEAR: 2013
MEDIUM: oil on canvas board
CONDITION: Very good. No visible inpaint under UV light.
SIGHT SIZE: 16 x 20 inches / 40 x 50 cm
FRAME SIZE: unframed (In-House framing available)
SIGNATURE: lower right
CATEGORY: old antique vintage painting for auction sale online
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BIOGRAPHY:
Bruce Brock says he always wanted to be a cowboy and work on a ranch. The inspiration came to him from the films of Roy Rogers, John Wayne and the Lone Ranger films.Growing up in Chanute, Brock had the opportunity to do some work on his family's small ranch and at the farms of relatives in Chanute and Humboldt, but couldn't find the kind of ranch work he wanted in his hometown.He got his chance at a big ranch when he began working on an 80,000 acre ranch near Limon, Colorado in the early 1980s through a family connection. This is also where he began his first foray into leather work."I always thought we'd be on horses all the time," he said. "I was on one every morning for an hour or two for the first four months."However, much of the work involved calving, mending fences and repairing roads around the ranch and he noted that most years he was not on a horse more than ten percent of the time."I learned a lot when I went to Colorado," said Brock. "I'd been out there for about three months when I got tangled up and dragged by a horse. I'm lucky to be here."With the nearest saddle shop nearly 100 miles away, there wasn't much time to travel and wait on equipment to be fixed."It wasn't long after I started working there if something would break on my saddle I was sitting there going, "?How do I get it fixed?'" Brock told Farm Talk News in a 2013 interview.The ranch foreman under whom Brock was working had a saying, however, that "somebody put this together and I ought to be smarter than he is," remembers Brock.Taking that philosophy to heart, Brock began working on saddles. He had always been interested in how saddles were created and had the goal of building his own saddle one day."I had a few books on how they come together," he said. "I just started taking them apart and putting them back together."He would later come into leather working tools and other equipment after his cousin-working a ranch in Wyoming-dropped off leather, tools and several saddles to be stored in the cookhouse at the ranch Brock was working in Colorado.With the tools just sitting around in the basement, Brock said he hated seeing the materials go to waste."So I built a workbench and started working with leather and building a saddle. And before I knew it I was building another saddle."Word spread quickly of his talents and orders were coming in for equipment repairs and custom made products. Since then, Brock says he has always had some kind of a leather shop wherever he is living. However, he says that he actually enjoys repairing saddles more than building them from the ground up due to the cost and time it takes to build a good saddle."It's easy to spot bad ones," he said. "Good ones take two sides of leather, sheep skin, a good saddle tree. The rigging needs to be well-attached."Aside from saddle repair, Brock also creates custom leather suspenders and cell phone holders, chaps, glass holders and a variety of other leather goods. He also does boot repair, but says he is slowing down somewhat on that front due to the time involved and a machine he uses in the repairs being old.Lest anyone think he is some kind of a one-trick pony, however, Brock also engages in several other artistic endeavors, including drawing, painting, writing and playing music at the Emma Chase jam sessions."I was always a creative person," he said. "I've always drawn. Pen and ink especially."In 1995, he took an art class at Neosho Community College that sparked his interest in painting with watercolors, later graduating to acrylics, which he says are his favorite materials with which to paint. He's used his painting and drawing skills to capture cowboy life in the Flint Hills and the natural beauty of the area's scenery. He also works with charcoal and pastels, and even has some of his sketches lasered onto his leather work. One of Brock's paintings will be featured at this year's Symphony in the Flint Hills signature event and four are currently available for viewing at the Grand Central Hotel & Grill in Cottonwood Falls.Brock has also authored two books of cowboy poetry, Cowboy Tales from the Basement and Cowboy Poet Who Me?, both featuring his writing and illustrations. He says he is currently working on a new book of poetry, but has had trouble coming up with a title."I just got the urge to write. It seemed to flow, and others apparently like what I'm doing," he told the Topeka Capital-Journal in 2013.Brock said that whatever he is currently working on is his favorite art project.