Much has been written about the early meetings of the Cowboy Artists of America, particularly on that now-iconic 1965 photo of the group’s founders sitting in the Oak Creek Tavern in Sedona, Arizona. But history goes back a little further. Back to the previous year, when three of the founders—Joe Beeler, Charlie Dye and John Wade Hampton—made a trip south of the border to a ranch in Sonora, Mexico. It was there, amid the dust and bleating of the calves, that the CAA was truly formed.
The group’s roots are not in the annual shows, or the semi-annual meetings, or even in that little “CA” brand that is painted in members’ signatures. The roots of the group are in the trail ride, which is why the annual event is so vital to the members.
In May, the CA united for the 2023 trail ride at the Bell Ranch in Northern New Mexico. Members of the group had long wanted to visit the Bell, but it had remained elusive until this year. It was on the Bell Ranch where Robert Lougheed fell in love with the West after taking a 1960 art commission from National Geographic. Lougheed was in the CA from 1968 until his death in 1982. Several of the members expressed their excitement at having the group “back on the Bell” after Lougheed laid the groundwork there so many years prior.
Photographer Nick Grant captured the trail ride. His photos speak to the beauty of the area, but also to the grit and determination of the hard-working cowboys who call the Bell Ranch home. —
Bell riders move the remuda to another camp.
Cowboy Artists of America members, from left: Teal Blake, Wayne Baize, Grant Redden, Mikel Donahue, Brandon Bailey, Jack Sorenson, C. Michael Dudash, Chad Poppleton, Dustin Payne, Tyler Crow, Martin Grelle and Phil Epp.
Jack Sorenson draws on a large piece of paper. All the artists contributed to a drawing that was given to the riders of the Bell Ranch as a thank you for letting the CA join the round-up and trail ride.
White tents dot brown earth on the Bell Ranch. The tents belong to the cowboys who work the ranch, as well as the visiting artists of the CA and their guests.
Robert Lougheed (1910-1982), Scattering the Bell Riders, 1970, oil on canvas, 36 x 66”
A calf is roped in the pens as it’s dragged out of the herd.
Cowboys gather to decide the order of the morning before leaving camp. It doesn’t take long to see what Robert Lougheed might have seen in the 1960s when he was visiting the area. His Scattering the Bell Riders is the reverse angle of this very scene.
Dustin Payne, left, tells a story to musician Red Steagall and Tyler Crow.
Bell riders wait for calves to come in.
Cowboys wrestle a calf to the ground so it can be branded, tagged and given several shots. The whole process takes less than a minute to minimize the stress on the calf, and so it can return to its momma quickly.
The chuckwagon, loaded with food and other provisions, is driven to the next camp on the Bell Ranch.
Roping out calves on the Bell Ranch. Riders wade through a sea of cattle and pick out the unbranded calves. They rope their hind legs and drag them from the herd to be branded and checked out.
Cowboys strategize the morning, which includes moving camp. Moments after this picture was taken, one of the large draft horses stepped on and broke the wagon tongue that sits in the foreground of the picture. It delayed the move of the camp by hours, until a make-shift fix could be made to the wagon.
Two cowboys take a break during a lull in the afternoon. Much of the day’s work is done before lunch, but the days start early and don’t stop until, as the saying goes, “the cows come in.”
Sunset on the Bell Ranch.
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