Painting completed in: 2008

This Painting was printed as my 2008 annual Christmas Gift Print that was sent to everyone who has made a purchase in the last three years! Shortly after Martha and I purchased the Ranch we traded Art for Ten Longhorn Calves and Four Horses. Just about all animals (we Humans included) Seem to have a social order where each member of the group has to find their place. Of the ten Longhorn Steers "Wimpy" ended up at the bottom of the list and had to wait until the others finished eating or drinking for his turn. I related to "Wimpy" as I had been in a similar role many times in my youth and often gave him some extra feed to make up for his being in last place. As the years wore on and the Longhorns got older, they were less likely to shove him around. (I can think of lots of parallels in my life as we all got older) At about 15 years; Old Age in Cattle years; our Longhorns began to slowly die off, one by one until at 22 years Wimpy was the last one standing and became the "Lead Steer" by default. Our other cattle (Non Longhorns) seemed to really admire Wimpy and treated him with much respect because of his 6 feet or so of curving horns. We expected to find him dead at any time but he hung on for another four years savoring his well earned position in the herd and making up for his troubled youth. Wimpy passed away at 26 years old, in August of this year and we truly miss seeing him every morning.