While visiting the Jaycee Park Centre for the Arts, this picture of cowboys rounding up cows on a ranch instantly caught my eye. The picture is a standard size of 3x3, and is square shaped. It is enclosed within a golden frame, which makes it more conspicuous. I was drawn to the picture by the cowboy who is wearing the red scarf, and sky blue shirt. The artist James Spurlock, has used him to capture the observer’s attention by using bold colors on his clothes as opposed to the other two cowboys, and the cows. The artist has also created an impression of distance as the cows in the front appear to be large in size. and clearer as compared to the two cowboys in the background. The element of a middle ground is present which is portrayed by the cowboy with the red scarf. He appears to be positioned between the cows in the front, and the other two cowboys in the back. The artist has been able to imply the texture of the cows’ skin using different brush strokes. One can see the roughness of the cows’ skin even without having to touch the smooth oil painted canvas. One cannot immediately tell the time of day when the picture was taken. This is because the background is not blue, but rather it is a greyish color, and most probably the cowboys are trying to lead the cows back to their stables for shelter before it rain. In the process of rounding up the cows, the surrounding is filled with dust resulting in the dark gold background.
According to this picture, the artist is trying to indicate that there are those individuals who take a lead in controlling a situation. In this case, the cowboy in the middle seems to be more in charge of the situation than the other two cowboys in the background. Similarly, the same thing happens in reality where some people are more aggressive than others. This type of person always takes a leading role in whatever situation they find themselves. They can manage to