"Texas Stampede" is an entry in the Work In Progress (WIP) show. It is unfinished. This steer was standing outside of Neiman Marcus. I started to paint a pastoral scene behind him and thought Gucci in Neiman's window might look better.

These steers were part of the annual herding through the streets of downtown Dallas, among the skyscrapers, pedestrians and cars. This cattle drive kicks off the Texas Stampede Rodeo held at the American Airlines Center. Sometimes, when I don't want to finish a painting, I call it practice. That's because I never practice, never sketch and I know that is bad and just because I get bored with something . . . I think it was da Vinci that drew a hand 1000 times just to get it right. I would love to have one tenth of that kind of dicipline.

The paint is very thick and impasto on this steer's head so there's no painting over this one. I used an unusually long canvas to impart the length of the long horns on this longhorn.