Melody in Black hills

Melody in the Black HillsOil on canvas$8,000 — Original | $200 — Fine Art Print

For years, I followed the same herd through the Black Hills — patient seasons of watching, waiting, learning their paths through the aspen. One day, on my horse Drifter, a great bull stepped out from the grove alone. He stopped. The wind moved through, and the aspen leaves began to chatter — that sudden, particular sound only aspen makes, thousands of leaves answering the same breath of wind at once. I had goosebumps before I understood why.

This painting holds that bull as he stood then — antlers rising until they become the canopy itself, rack and treetop no longer separate things. He isn't standing in the forest. He's grown out of it, the way years of watching him made it feel like he belonged to that grove more than any single tree did.

Painted from a moment years in the making, carried there by a horse who'd carried me through many seasons of the same watching.

One original. Limited fine art prints available.