Caprock (SOLD)

The Caprock Escarpment is a geological formation that begins its jagged and colorful journey just South of present-day Amarillo in the form of the astounding Palo Duro Canyon, second only in the US, to the Grand Canyon in size and majesty.  It slashes and carves its way across the neck and shoulder of the Panhandle as it stabs its marks into the sun-baked flesh of North Texas and dwindles out easterly onto the plains and tableland of Knox County.

Chief Quanah Parker and his band of Quahadi Comanches made their home and hunting land here, and they were said to have known every crag and turn in the Caprock Escarpment and could traverse its meandering, even in the dark of night.  They would stampede buffalo off the cliffs as a clever hunting tactic.

My recent painting, “Caprock” depicts Chief Quanah Parker and a companion as they ascend from the craggy canyons of the escarpment.  The breaky, organic forms in the painting describe the harshness of the landscape and the indigenous people’s existence there.  They were a people of the land and they were one with it.  My painting integrates man and land as one ambiguous whole.  It’s otherworldly, undulating shapes describe the scene and its harsh beauty and colorful drama.

The painting is large, 48” x 48” and is acrylic painted on canvas which has been covered with 1890s, handwritten deed documents from Parker County, which was named after Isaac Parker, the Chief’s mother’s uncle.  The documents are an actual relic from the time period of the painting and give the piece an added dimension because these very deeds conveyed lands once controlled by the Comanches.  The documents cut their way back to the surface and are revealed throughout the painting adding to the ambiguity.