Description: Pencil | Image Size: 7”h x 5”w; Framed Size: 10 ¼"h x 8 ¼"w  

Robert “Shoofly” Shufelt, known for his drawings of modern cowboy and ranch life, is a master in his use of shading to create various textures and details and has achieved the same level of quality in his small pieces as he does in his larger works.  Though the title of this drawing is unknown, Shufelt attached verso this Bruce Brockett poem which speaks directly to the image he depicted.

Description: Pencil | Image Size: 5”h x 7”w; Framed Size: 10 ¼”h x 8 ¼”w

Robert “Shoofly” Shufelt spent twenty years working as a commercial illustrator following his graduation from the University of Illinois. In the mid-1970’s, Shufelt moved to Arizona to live on a ranch owned by his wife’s family. He soon became engrossed in cowboy work and decided to focus on that subject almost exclusively in his art. He specializes in drawing and produces images of modern ranching life that are realistic and precise, and he is a master at shading and varying textures and details.

Appearing verso on Shufelt’s “Ridin” drawing is a poem of the same name by C. Badger Clark (1883-1957), an American Cowboy Poet and the first poet laureate of South Dakota. Here at the EBC, were enamored by both.

Poem, “Ridin’,” by C. Badger Clark affixed Verso:

There is some that like the city

Grass that’s curried smooth and green,

Theaytres and stranglin’ collars,

Wagons run by gasoline

But for me it’s hawse and saddle

Every day without a change,

And a desert sun a-blazin’

On a hundred miles of range.

Just a-ridin’, a-ridin’

Desert ripplin’ in the sun,

Mountains blue along the skyline

I don’t envy anyone when I’m ridin’.