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© Copyright 2006
Paso Robles Pioneer Museum
Phone (805) 239-4556

 

2005 EVENT

BILL ADAMS  TUMBLEWEED SADDLERY I am a retired firefighter and a retired cattle rancher. I also do some cowboying part time. I have done leather work all my life and have been making saddles for five years. I work out of my shop at home and make five or six saddles a year as well as any kind of cowboy horse gear, namely chinks, breast collars, bridles, hobbles, bucking rolls, and fence pliers cases. I sell Moore Maker fence pliers, saddle blankets, bits and spurs.

LARRY BEES   Pencil Drawings      www.larrybees.com/

JOE BROKER   Saddles. Sells saddles, tack, leatherworking tools.  Retired from movie industry.  Did work for Steve McQueen, Marlon Brando, Richard Boone, Dan Blocker, Dolly Parton, Mary Martin, Ronald Reagan, Shelley Winters, Slim Pickens, Ben Johnson, Audie Murphy, Raquel Welch, and George C. Scott.

RON BUTLER BUTLER'S SADDLE SHOP For over 25 years Ron Butler has made beautiful, top-quality, custom-made saddles and leather goods for the many of California’s working cowboys.  Today, with the help of his wife, Cheryl, and daughter, Sarah, they continue to work hard outfitting all working cowboys and cowboys-at-heart with the same outstanding quality tack people have come to expect from the Butler family!

GINNI CARY I create western hatboxes, completely handmade and cut in my ranch workshop in the same building my great-grandfather once had a blacksmith shop.  My boxes feature western borders, wallpaper, and genuine leather with adornments in variety of size and shapes.

DON AND DORINE CASWELL -- CASWELL TRADING CO. Western Memorabilia. We will have on display and for sale to the public a large collection of antique cowboy and Indian collectibles from the late 1800’s and early 1900’s.  We specialize in old fancy chaps, California spurs and bits, braided rawhide bridles, and California gambling items such as silver and ivory daggers.  Other items will include Winchesters, Colts, Native American beadwork and jewelry, cowboy and cowgirl decorator pieces, and much more.

CHORRO VALLEY REGULATORS Members of the Single Action Shooters Society. You can see their local club listing here: Clubs

GORDON CLAASSEN Ornamental Iron, Painting. Gordon has known and loved the California ranch life since he was a child.  Born and raised on his family’s ranch, he has always thrived on a life lived close to the land and partnership with a good cowhorse.  His love of art is a lifelong passion as well.  Claassen  Thankfully, his work managing cattle ranches has kept him close to the land and to the working cowboy.  He has a particular interest in the Old California ways of the vaquero and the oak studded hills of the central coast.  And he paints what he knows and loves.

BOB CORONATO Etchings. I used to open books and look at the "Old West" photos and see cowboys riding the open plains, and I would stop and think, "I wished I lived 100 years ago."

After going out to the very remote west and finding ranches that still "cowboy" in the old ways, I realized that the west I was searching for as a kid, was still there.

In tiny hidden corners of the country, you can still find places untouched by time. There are ranches that gather on horseback 2000 to 3000 head of cows, across 100's of miles of fenceless landscape. The time has come where land is becoming too valuable, and it is no linger affordable to have cows roaming free, on open range. This forces ranches to sell off lands to survive, and before long, the "West" will be gone.

Even now I can see dramatic changes and the things I was lucky enough to be a part of just a few years ago are now gone. For example, old style ranch rodeos, traditional brandings, log cabins with no electricity, and running the chuck wagon during roundup. I no longer have a wish to be a part of the old days, but have become part of the west I was searching for. We are at a clash of two times where traditional cowboy'n ways are being overridden by the modern technologies.

This has been the focus of my paintings as I try to document moments in time that show the ways of a fading lifestyle that so many people have admired. The freedom of the west, and the wide open spaces have become a symbol of our great country. As our lives become more regimented, and the rules become more numerous, we long for those places of freedom. The subjects of my work remind people that there still is a remote, free west. It gives a sense of relief, that we are not a completely modern country, just yet.

The question I hear most often is, "Do they still do that?" Well, yes they do, but who knows for much longer? By living in a very remote section of Wyoming, and helping ranchers and cowboys, I feel proud to have been lucky enough to be a part of this final chapter in the history of the American frontier. For now, "The West" is alive, it's just hiding, in small corners of our country, trying desperately to hang on, and not be forgotten.  Claassen

SANDRA CULVER Decorated, hand painted gourds 

RUTH DEOUDES The execution and technique of her pencil drawings are very important to her, but her main goal is to create a vision the viewer can relate to. With humor and sensitivity, Ruth invites you to share a moment in the life of the rural American.       

LINDA DOYLE  Silverwork - conchos, buckles 

PASO GATHERING DRAWING SPACE, PIONEER MUSEUM

GRIFF DURHAM   Author, Historian      

ED FIELD   Bits and More, Silverwork Ed is a well known, 4th generation bit maker who lives in Paradise, near Lake Cachuma in Santa Barbara County. His work is widely sought by collectors. Ed learned the craft from his grandfather, John J. Field, whose bits are very rare and collectible. John J. learned from his father, Ed's great grandfather, who learned his skill at Tiffany's while making silverware, knives and spoons. His great grandfather came out west with Fremont, then returned to Connecticut, packed up his tools and gear and returned to Calaveras, then to Santa Barbara.

Around 1890, you didn't buy a bit from a store. You went to a blacksmith and had one made. They were all different: different sizes and different thickness of steel. Even the cheek plates didn't match. Very few had any inlaid silverwork.

Ed's dad made spurs, inlaid with silver. After WWII he sold all he could make to Jedica Saddlery in Santa Barbara. Ed's aunt, Rita Thornburg, made bits and put two sons through college.

Ed learned his trade while a grammar and high school student. He also worked on ranches and for the Forest Service. Town didn't agree with him, so he moved back to where he got his start.

Ed says he is 85 and still working and "I'm not going to quit. It gets me out of the house and keeps my brain working." His wife says Ed enjoys work, but not when it comes to yardwork. He is happiest when he completes a project.

Ed's son Gary Wayne Field has been working with him for 7 years and is doing a "good job" according to Ed. Both will be at the Paso Gathering, where Ed is a generous sponsor of the event. He donates a handcrafted silver inlaid bit each year for the fund raising drawing.

ALEC FRANCO -- SILVER COYOTE SADDLERY     

BRUCE HAENER   Bit & Spur Collector and Maker

HEATHER HAFLEIGH MAVERICK PHOTOGRAPHY I grew up in Phoenix. My Dad put me on my first horse at age four. I now have a buckskin quarterhorse.

I started photography while in college and for the past 15 years have been photographically documenting the vaquero tradition as carried on by ranchers in California, including Indian descendants.
 
                                            

In 2004 my photo exhibition called, "Viva La Charreria Mexicana" toured California. My work has been collected by the Autry Mueseum, Western Folklife Center, and the Oakland Museum.

JOE D. HERNANDEZ   Silverwork - bits and spurs

HORSEWRIGHT CLOTHING AND TACK CO.  Harris tweed custom-made
     vests, wildrags & slides, Anza knives, handmade jewelry by Tapadaro, and
     misc. horse tack

ZENON HIPOLITO   ZAPOTEC INDIAN ART Handwoven Zapotec
     rugs and pillows.
We also demonstrate our work with a loom.

CHARLES IRWIN   Bits, spurs, rawhide

MARI JAMES   Braided leather and rawhide gear

BRIAN KUNIC -- TULLY HOLE SADDLERY Custom horse gear. I specialize in making custom horse gear for today’s working cowboy, including chaps, spur straps, headstraps, etc.

DEBORAH KUNIC   Painting and Printmaking     

kunic ceramicCopyResize.jpg (71085 bytes)  kunic sculp2resized.jpg (62436 bytes)

KAY LYNN LANGWELL  

CLIF LYNCH -- SADDLEWORKS 45 years leather working, many years on cattle ranches in California, Nevada, Oregon, making saddles and tack in winter months and evenings after work.  Full-time saddle maker, leather craft since 1977.

BRENT McCASLIN -- SLICKFORK BOOT   Custom Bootmaker 

JOE MILAZZO   Pen and ink drawings     

VEL MILLER Oil Painting and Sculpture. Vel Miller’s house/studio is a chest of treasures that sits atop one of those rolling Central California hills that meander down to the Pacific some 20 miles away.  The house, like the artist, is filled with memories of the most important things in life…people…mementos of family, friends and mentors who have enriched her life.  Paintings cover the walls and sculptures sit atop antique tables draped with cowhide.  Your eye can’t travel an inch but it encounters some richly patinaed artifact of the Old West…the things of which Vel’s life is made!

In painting and sculpting, Vel concentrates on the more emotional view of the West.  Vel says, “The most rugged and strongest people I’ve known have also been the kindest and most loving.  This is the feeling I try to portray.  I want the person who views my work to see something they have experienced themselves, or to feel a mood that brings them happiness.”

  Vel wrote:  “The West lives on, not just in the heart of the cowboy roping a calf or an Indian chasing a buffalo.  It lives in all of us.  It’s the hardships and the rewards.  I see it in a child with his or her animals or a mother or father with their children.  It’s the wonder of the latest crop of calves or colts, or just the evening light shining across a meadow.  I hear it in the creak of a new saddle and the nicker of a mare to her foal or perhaps the crow of a rooster announcing a new and sparkling day.

It is true that some of the images are gone and some live only in the artwork created before us, but there is still a story to tell and world full of subjects to portray.  This is what all Artists, whether craftsmen, painters, sculptor, singers or storytellers, are trying to present: the love we feel for the West.  We hope you share it with us.  If you do, the West and the Spirit of the West will live forever.”

Vel attended the Art League of Los Angeles, studying under Hal Reed and Max Turner.  She later taught there.  An important mentor, Joe Deyong, a protégé of Charlie Russell, encouraged and inspired her with his stories and love of the Old West.

Participating in numerous exhibitions, Vel has earned over 40 “Firsts,” Best of Show,” and “Purchase Awards.”  She has completed several corporate commissions.  Her work is displayed in museums and public and private collections Internationally.  She and her artwork have been featured in Contemporary Western Artists, several editions of Southwest Art and Art of the West magazines.  She is currently listed in “Who’s Who in American Art,” “Who’s Who in the West,” “Who’s Who of American Women,” and “An Encyclopedia of Women Artists of the American West.”  Vel was commissioned to do the drawings on Western Horseman’s Cowboy Calendars for 1997, 1998, 1999, and 2000 and has recently illustrated and created covers for several books.  Vel was in a show in Sorrento, Italy in September 2000 with The American Women Artists, an artist group of which she is a founding member.  The Mayor of Sorrento purchased one of her paintings.  In the fall of 2000, Vel was commissioned to do a heroic size monument of the City of Paso Robles, California.  The 8-foot high sculpture of a Fireman handing a baby to a Policewoman, titled “Reward for Valor” will be dedicated in 2004.

Vel and her husband, Warren, currently own a Central Coast ranch where they raise Texas Longhorn Cattle and American Quarter Horses.     

SPARKY MOORE Artist and Illustrator.  

Richard “Sparky” Moore does a variety of artwork with western flare.  His background as a cartoonist for more than 50 years for studios like Disney, Hanna & Barbera, and Dell/Western Publishing had him drawing anywhere from adventure to western comic books like “Little Beaver” and “Range Rider” to many years of drawing, among others for Disney studios, “Winnie the Pooh” for both books and newspaper comic strips.  He now uses that creative imagination to give us western art that offers, at times, humor as well as taking us back to a way of life that used to be.  Come by and see what “Sparky” has come up with this year, you’ll find anything from hand carved rocking “mules”, cowboy and cowgirl cutouts, and of course his popular western sketches.

ERNEST MORRIS Ernest Morris was born December 13, 1927, a fifth generation California cattleman. His youth was molded by ranch life in the central coast area of California where he worked with older men who followed the California vaquero horsemanship style. Ernie especially credits his grandfather, Jesse Wilkinson, with teaching him many of the vaquero ways, and the techniques for making quality rawhide equipment.

Ernie's art talents began to show at an early age, with special interests in the California vaquero. Vaquero art was a hobby for Ernie until 1964 when he became a full-time artist as an occupation. In 1967 Ernie began placing a small hackamore beside his name on his paintings as a symbol to connect his art and his rawhide work.                               
                                      elvaquero.com 

He has created artwork with pen and ink, pencil, charcoal, watercolor, oils, acrylic, bronze sculpting, and wood carving, and he has authored and illustrated four popular books about vaquero horsemanship and livestock handling --- El Vaquero (published in 1989), El Buckaroo (published in 1995), and Riata Men (published in 1999) and California Cowboy Inventions. His art, rawhide work, and books have been featured in galleries, museums, and private collections throughout the United States and in many other parts of the world.

Although Ernie's art encompasses most of his time, he is active in the cattle business, training his won ranch horses, braiding rawhide gear, and occasionally making horse-hair mecates. Ernie and his wife, Blanche, reside on their ranch near Templeton, California, where they enjoy Western art, horses, cattle, and friendly conversation.

DIANNE PARTINGTON  Original Western/Native American Silver/Turquoise
     Jewelry 

LARRY PECK  Western Memorabilia

CHRIS POTZERNITZ -- POTZERNITZ SADDLERY A family tradition of fine leather goods since 1900.                                   
                                               www.potzernitzsaddlery.com

CHUCK PRITCHARD   Photography - landscape and ranch - current and
     historic

MICHAEL RHOADS   Silver - new and collectible, bits, spurs, bridles,
     saddles and fine Palm hats

DOROTHY ROGERS -- CALIFORNIA CLASSICS  

Dorothy Rogers and California Classics Steeped in the traditions of the Pacific Slope, Dorothy Rogers was selected to be the Coordinator of the original California Vaquero Show hosted by Arnold Rojas and Lou Hengehold and held at the historic Mill in Santa Paula. This annual event and those who participated helped to revive the interest in the California cow horse and the distinctive style, elements, and dedication to time honored methods developed in Africa, Europe, and perfected during the mission period on the vast ranchos of the New World.

While teaching full time, Dorothy served as the Equestrian Project Officer for SLO County with the Chamber of commerce for which she staged events, ranch tours, and acted as a liaison with the equine community. Practical application of seat to saddle came in the running of a cow/calf operation as well as taking day work on ranches. This gave her an appreciation for "an all day seat" built in a saddle. She was a partner in a custom saddlery for over 15 years and has also associated with master silver and gold smiths who have given her knowledge of the finer points of traditional craftsmanship, line, balance, and style. Dorothy is the Equestrian Editor for a a local newspaper and outside editorial writer for other equine publications. This affords her the opportunity and privilege to meet and know some of the world's top horsemen and their needs and preferences. Dorothy is currently a syndicated equine columnist.

Dorothy's late mother was a fine tailor and costume designer trained in the European school. She designed some of the apparel carried at California Classics today. Her late father, Roy Rogers, cowboyed the ranches of the Southwest and California. He possessed an innate ability with animals. This has left Dorothy with an ever present desire to learn more about working with her horses, cattle and dogs and seeking out those who have dedicated themselves to the development of this relationship.

California Classics is celebrating ten years making and providing classic Western essentials and accessories for horse ranch and rider. Besides fine horse gear in the tradition of Californios, we offer the largest selection of Western and cowboy music in the West. Dorothy has also completed over 4,400 hand-rolled wild rags. We offer traditional silver from the oldest Western (1870's) silversmiths and the second oldest. Our shop is five minutes south of the museum in Templeton.

California Classics was started by Dorothy in 1994. Dorothy and the talented artists, artisans, and craftsmen she gathered together continue to create and locate mid to upper end horse gear and leathercraft, premium silver for horse and human, limited edition silk scarves, wool vests, and other apparel, collectibles, decorator items, fine western art and specially selected music, books, videos and gifts. These are hand selected in an effort to enrich the lives of ranchers, cowboys, charros, horsemen, aficionados, working buckaroos, or those who just want a touch of the West.

We are "preserving traditions as old as the West" both here and abroad while progressing toward the future with the help and blessings of many good friends and Our Lord.

Aaron Winchell and California Classics Aaron Winchell A long rope man, Aaron Winchell's background in construction, saddle shops, as a packer and a working buckaroo provides customers with his first hand expertise when making durable yet beautiful gear for a variety of horses and climates. 

TERRI ROSE   Artist, Oils

   Terri Rose - Lakota Hills

Painter of horses since childhood and later was able to own my horse.  Grew to love trail riding then started competing in  long-distance endurance riding.  Great satisfaction is felt when combining art with hands-on life with riding horses.  I also paint landscapes with horses, westerns, and pet portraits. You can e-mail at: jdrose@tcsn.net


MITCH ROTH Ornamental Ironwork   Mitch Roth Shop

DON SHORTS Historical and Collectible Books. Don Shorts is the co-owner of Ventura’s Old California Store and is an author of books about Jo Mora and Mexican arts.  He also owns the Old California Press, which publishes books about California and Mexico.

DANNY SMITH  Woodworking

H. G. SMITH  Antique Western and Indian items 

JOELLE SMITH  Artist, Painter and Sculptor. We will miss seeing Joelle at our event. Her loss is deeply felt.     

GLENN STEIN Silverwork, Western Memorabilia. I have been in California for about 44 years, and have been collecting bits and spurs for 35 years.  I have been making bits and spurs for about 8 years.

TAPADERO - SUSAN JENSEN    J & S PRODUCTIONS

PHIL TOGNAZZINI   Etchings and Watercolors    

DELWYNE TREFZ   Bits, spurs and sterling jewelry

JOHN VARIAN Western Wood Furniture (able to withstand Parkfield earthquakes)

BRUCE WALTER   Bronze sculptor

JEREMIAH WATT  Tools, silver bits, spurs      

KAREN FOSTER-WELLS  Western original art and reproductions, tiles and
     cards  

PATRICE BALLEW-ZUBILLAGA Glasswork - etching, jewelry  

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