WOOLY CHAPS 2019
This is the sixth in a series of full figure cowboys created beginning in 2003. All in the series are approximately the same height and dimensions. This is roughly the maximum carving I can get out of a slab of wood that is about four inches thick.
Wooly chaps are worn for the same reasons working cowboys and cowgirls wear other styles of chaps: They offer protection from brush, trees, thorns, weather, branding irons, and other hazards inherent to the cowboy lifestyle. Because the long hair on wooly chaps offers extra protection and insulation against cold and wet conditions they are particularly popular where winters are long and harsh.
While wooly chaps are practical, they are also very showy. For that reason they were popular with 1800s wild west show performers and Western artists. (The renowned Western artist Frederic Remington created a bronze statue titled "Wooly Chaps," also known as "The Bronco Buster." It depicts a cowboy wearing wooly chaps riding a bucking horse.) Wooly chaps are still popular today for reasons of practicality and showiness.
Freehand design, band sawed and hand carved. Finished with boiled linseed oil, color stains created from oil paints, sealed and liquid wax. Basswood, 17 inches high.
Wooly chaps are worn for the same reasons working cowboys and cowgirls wear other styles of chaps: They offer protection from brush, trees, thorns, weather, branding irons, and other hazards inherent to the cowboy lifestyle. Because the long hair on wooly chaps offers extra protection and insulation against cold and wet conditions they are particularly popular where winters are long and harsh.
While wooly chaps are practical, they are also very showy. For that reason they were popular with 1800s wild west show performers and Western artists. (The renowned Western artist Frederic Remington created a bronze statue titled "Wooly Chaps," also known as "The Bronco Buster." It depicts a cowboy wearing wooly chaps riding a bucking horse.) Wooly chaps are still popular today for reasons of practicality and showiness.
Freehand design, band sawed and hand carved. Finished with boiled linseed oil, color stains created from oil paints, sealed and liquid wax. Basswood, 17 inches high.
