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Beatin' the Rain

Currency:USD Category:Western Americana Start Price:NA Estimated At:30,000.00 - 50,000.00 USD
Beatin' the Rain
Beatin' the Rain
Artist: Reynolds, JamesDate of Birth: 1926-2010
Medium: Oil on board
Dimensions: 24 x 36 inches
Signed: Signed lower right/CA and dated 1974

Like the American West itself, Western Art is ultimately about the elements. As an artist who spent a great deal of time in the saddle, Jim Reynolds knew this. Like many of his works, BeatinÕ the Rain owes something to Frank Tenney Johnson, but it has a 3-D, stereoptic feel that Johnson never seems to have sought to achieve. Everything falls away in the picture plane from the central figureÕs yellow slicker, flyinÕ in the hellbent breeze. The stormÕs come up quickly, over that ridge at right; the cowboys might not even have seen it coming until it was almost on them. WhatÕs interesting in the painting is the two horses that dominate the center of the picture. They appear to be a pairÑdark, strong and fast. In this, they match the stormÕs intensity. They make it a race, one they just might win.