Much of my art and thus, all this writing about my art focuses on the Scenic Loop, a 76-mile circuit around the Davis Mountains of West Texas. Worthy of its descriptive name on area maps, this sightseer's delight starts in Fort Davis, then weaves southwest around the mountains. A majestic, rugged volcanic formation aptly named Sawtooth Mountain marks the major change in direction, the psychological halfway point. Past Sawtooth, to the north and east, the road winds by McDonald Observatory, Davis Mountain State Park, the historic frontier fort, then back into Fort Davis.

This usually deserted two-lane road circles lands ranched by the same families since the 1800's, volcanic palisades of rock, antelope, open range cattle and all brands of deer. As tourist children, my siblings and I would compete as to how many animals we could count during one of Daddy's sunset drives around the Loop, while my father concentrated on not making road kill out of any critters. Now, my husband and I drive it every time we leave home to go anywhere, a privilege we don't take lightly. Sometimes, we drive it just to be sightseers. Sometimes we chase the sunset, a splendid vision out in these parts.

I'm not the only artist seeing the far west of Texas up close and personal. I'm not even the only one living in the vicinity of the Davis Mountain Scenic Loop. Cowboy Artist of America Wayne Baize is my close neighbor. We see the same mountains when we wake up, mornings. We drive the same roads for groceries and mail, marvel at the same sunsets. We paint the same landscapes, because that's simply what see. What we know. Jim and I recently lunched with Wayne and Ellen, then attended their youngest son's high school graduation. Great people living a great life, and Wayne produces some great western art.

We also recently attended a memorial service for Fort Davis artist Bill Leftwich. (Bill and Mary Alice held down the town end of the Scenic Loop.) Bill, in his long and artistically prolific career, documented just about every aspect of life in Big Bend country, and he did it in about every way possible for an artist to capture a way of life. A native American himself, one of his last works was a bronze bust of an Indian. His skillfully-tooled leather chair seats in their home each display the portrait of a different Indian chief. A commemorative Christmas ornament Bill designed was chosen to hang on a recent White House tree. I could go on and on about what this humble World War II hero accomplished. His drawings have graced books; his alma mater Texas A& M proudly displays Bill's large bronze of dog mascot Reville. He painted Mexican dancers. Broken down cowboys. Colorful bandits. Like Bill, his oil paintings tell stories. Funny stories. Touching stories. Great stories, by a great man who traveled dusty roads around a great land. I wish we'd known him longer.

Another place, another time, another artist: For one brief but intense week, I studied under talented New York city artist Ted Seth Jacobs. Jacobs, who was also a fellow martial artist, shared his manuscript of what later became the best book on drawing I've yet to read, DRAWING WITH AN OPEN MIND.  In it, Jacobs defines drawing as "the relic of movement". The trail a bird leaves in the sky. The path of the wind. The step of a dancer... the hand of a painter.

The life of a man.

The relic of motion. Energy as vision.

Landscapes, portraits, figures and animals. Baize, Leftwich and Lindy. Ted Seth Jacobs, who lived in a world about as alien to ours as it gets. Unnamed artists, working in media I don't use, in places I'll never go. Artists share a common vision. Perhaps because no matter how we do it or how it comes out, we seek to capture the relic of movement, to freeze energy and then, to share it.

Energy translated. Visions shared.
Daddy driving us city kids around the Scenic Loop to count animals. The Baizes ceremoniously sealing their son's childhood and sending him toward manhood with well-placed learning to back him up. Our town telling Bill Leftwich goodbye, saying "thank you" for sharing a life well-lived. A teacher I never saw again sharing his thoughts on drawing in a way I'll never forget.
Vision. Energy.

Volcanic activity making mountains for artists to one day paint. The sun painting color across a broad sky.
From where I stand now, the road to sundown takes me to Sawtooth Mountain. I chase the sunset and try to freeze the relic of its movement so I can share it.
I share that vision as a tribute to Bill Leftwich, who leaves a long trail of life across the western sky.



THE ROAD TO SUNDOWN   (Sawtooth Mt)
30" x 22" pastel on archival Wallis paper
by Lindy C Severns  2009
available at Midland Gallery  June 2009  $5000 plus framing

for purchase information, email mike@midlandgallery.com

For more visions of Big Bend Country visit my website OldSpanishTrailStudio.comor if you can't remember that, just go to LindyCSeverns.com