Years ago, Texas artist Bruce Greene was out on a roundup at a cattle ranch as the cowboys rode out in the early-morning hours.

“We all left and were taken around the edge of this pasture. Each rider was dropped off in a spot and that was their place. They had to wait there until the other riders got to their spot, until the last guy was in position. You wouldn’t be able to see him, but you could hear him faintly holler when it was time to ride inward to drive the cattle,” Greene says. “The part that interested me was that time when the cowboy was waiting. The sun was just coming up and they were feeling it on their face. And other than maybe the breathing of the horse, it was silent. They waited in this quiet and beautiful solitude. That.That is the cowboy lifestyle that I want to capture.”

The Strawberry Roan, gouache, 28 x 22 in.Greene has a new show opening April 3 at InSight Gallery in Fredericksburg, Texas. The title of the show, The Enduring West, also speaks to those quiet moments the artist experiences with working cowboys. Greene stresses the word “enduring.”

“This Western lifestyle still goes on. Every day. I don’t think all that many people are aware that this still goes on; that people are out there living in this way and doing these things. They live quiet and separate of the busy culture that we all live in. So many people still don’t realize that these places exist. Places that have a lot of land, where someone could go ride and work cattle,” Greene says. “Years back, I went to the JA Ranch. I first went there in 1998. There weren’t cell phones then. In fact, they might have had only one landline on that whole giant place. They mostly communicated with two-way radios. Guys would go live in camps, so far out they couldn’t even take their kids to public school because it would take too long, so they did homeschool. These are remote places, and even today they haven’t changed that much.”

Bred for the Dance, bronze, 22 x 12¾ x 38½ in.The “enduring” part of the title isn’t referring to the myth of the West, because myth suggests it may have never existed, such as fables or legends. What endures is the modern-day cowboy, who is alive and well in pockets all around North America. Greene is not the first artist to expand on these subjects, but he is the stalwart ambassador leading the charge into a changing art world. 

The changing world he refers to is an acknowledgment of contemporary Western art, and the many expanding subgenres taking hold at galleries, museums and art venues. He respects the artists and the work they are creating, but also clings fast to the more traditional methods and subjects he continues to champion. “There is a place for somebody like me, who’s ridden the miles and part of that life,” he says. “I’m recording it still in my work. These works are my memories.”

 

 

 As Free as the Robbins’ Flight, oil, 28 x 24 in.  

But the memories are not just his own. Greene recalls visiting a young working cowboy at Red Steagall’s place in Texas. The young man approached the artist and pulled out his cell phone to show him picture after picture of Greene’s work. “He had them all on his phone so he could look at them. They were all my work. He told me I was recording his lifestyle. He knew the pictures weren’t of him, but they were about him and his lifestyle,” the artist says. “It meant a lot to hear that.”

A Lair for Lone Riders, oil, 24 x 20 in.

 

The Familiar Solitude, oil, 30 x 30 in.

Saddle Shy, oil, 28 x 22 in.

The InSight show will have as many as 16 works, including the oil Free as the Robbins’ Flight. The oils are always special at a Greene show, but so are the sculptures, and the artist plans to have several major new works, including Bred for the Dance, showing a horse and rider squared up with an uncooperative cow; Flushed, a wall-mounted bronze; The Horseman’s Loop, which includes miniature horses at the bronze’s base; and the monument Goats in the Garden, featuring a pioneer woman forcing a pesky intruder from her flowerbed. 

Flushed, bronze, 53 x 29 in.

The bronzes, except for the wall-mounted piece, all read exceptionally well from multiple angles. “That is very much influenced by Fritz White. He was a big proponent of the circular-moving motions. I studied with him, which was an adventure in itself,” Greene says, adding that he has no intention of slowing down with his sculpture. “I’m really connected to that work right now. I spent a lot time sculpting last summer, including some huge commissions. I love going back and forth on each medium because it keeps me from getting burnt out on any one thing. But sculpture will always be special.”

The Horsman’s Loop, bronze, 24 x 8 in.

Other works include the gouache piece The Strawberry Roan, an untitled ink on paper piece, and the charcoal drawing Somewhere West of Wall Street. Greene admits he has never felt bound to one medium, which allows him to explore freely. 

The Enduring West opens April 3. An artist reception will be held on April 18, from 5 to 7 p.m. —

InSight Gallery  214 W. Main Street  »  Fredericksburg, TX 78624  » (830) 997-9920  »  www.insightgallery.com 

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