Branding Iron

The Story Behind the Painting
The cowboy featured in ‘Branding Iron’ is BC cowboy Ilya Zalubniak. I took the reference image at a branding at the Gang Ranch in BC. I loved this scene for the light and shadow that the afternoon sun caused in this piece, particularly the half shadow across the cowboy's face. I was also intrigued by the wood fire in this scene, as it was one of the rare times that a wood fire was used at the Gang instead of a propane fire to keep the branding iron hot.

This piece was a study completed for a larger work, ‘Smoke and Iron.’ I use these smaller colour studies as an elaborate sketch planning out the composition of the larger piece. The colour studies are done with very loose brushwork and little detail as I experiment with the lighting, direction of the brushwork and colours of the composition. I really enjoy doing these colour studies as they are a good mental break for me from my higher detailed work.