With the exception of only one, all the below paintings are my interpretation of other artists works. They are not for sale for that reason. I thus far have used other artist's paintings as a learning process in place of going to art classes. I must give credit to Arizona Highways Magazine for the inspiration in creating what I have learned. Copy right laws prevent us from duplicating anything published from theirs or any other magazine, however, it could be used for ideas of the real world.

This image was first worked out with colored pencils. The feather head dress was inspired from a Santa Fe railroad publication. Then I did another image with the face from Mad Magazine. Finally, the whole idea was started from scratch with oils on canvas. The painting hangs near the entrance of my layout room.

Apache May

This is an oil painting I made and inspired by a picture in Arizona Highways Magazine. The story about the little girl is as follows;

A band of Apaches had been raiding ranches in Southern Arizona near the Mexico border. The effected settlers and ranches became fed up with this practice and set out to chase down the Apaches. They were found in the mountains on the Mexican side of the border. Gun fire broke out on both sides and the Apaches fled into the boulders. The pursuers inspected the Indian camp and came across many articles those Apaches had stolen from them. To their surprise, an Apache baby was found in a bundle of blankets. John Slaughter was the official law man in the group and took this fourteen month old child back home in Arizona and adopted her into his family. There were already other adopted children there, but Apache May was quite different from them. The Oleander plants were watered in the evening and Patchy (family nick name) would go down on all fours and drink from a water puddle rather than drink from a glass. Her middle name was May as that was the month she was found.

When she was about five years old, tragedy struck. Patchy and the other children were playing in the embers of the ranch fire pit when her dress caught fire. She suffered sever burns that took her life within hours. The family was not home at the time and the nearest doctor was sixty miles away in Bisbee Arizona. One of the toughest layman in Arizona was often seen with tears in his eyes as John Slaughter and Patchy were very close.

Apache May is buried in one of 33 other unmarked graves among cowboys, farmhands and a couple outlaws shot near there. The Slaughter ranch was enormous in size and is now a state historical site.

Edited from an article in Arizona Highways

Phil Anderson

The original painting was done by Nicolai Fechin, a distinguished artist featured frequently in Arizona Highways Magazine.

Vaquero is the Spanish word for cowboy. Western writers tell of the skill and daring of these men in work and battle. They were born into a hostile environment and their savvy became an instinct for survival. In the early days of the Southwest, fellows like this were an absolute asset to any ranching operation. They could be summoned quickly for duty and become the personal army of the ranches for fighting off Pancho Villa or raiding bands of Indians. You could compare this to a modern day version of Home Land Security for fighting terrorist.

My version of the face is a touch more youthful than the original which justifies it as my own work. My first copy of this went to my very mucho 77 year old Mexican neighbor. I told him that this was a picture of him when he was much younger. He shows this to his grand children and tells them tall tales of his imaginary early manhood.

This is and oil on art board and inspired from several different articles in Arizona Highways Magazine. I have visited the Nation many times and many of the people there are my friends.

The original is a water color by the famous Arizona artist Ross Sante. Mine is an oil on canvas as shown at left.

Ross Sante was a western writer who illustrated his own stories and featured many times over the years in Arizona Highways.

The story is about a cowboy he knew that left home as a lad and returned years later to find the family gone. Ross painted the picture from the verbal description the cowboy gave him.

 Los Ninos
(the children)
My painting was inspired by the work and Ted De Grazia whose work made him the most popular artist in Arizona. His impression was used by the United Children’s Fund for their logo.

I added the St. Philip’s Mission of Tucson in the background to capture the Southwest.

The information is from Arizona Highways Magazine of which I use for practicing my oil painting.

Phil Anderson

History books tell an interesting story about this very cunning Nimbres Apache who led a band of seventy Warriors for a period of fourteen months. Prickly Pear Cactus grows on my property so I used them as an example in my painting.

The inspirational painting was done by artist, Gary Bennett for a story by Stan Smith in the Nov, 1998 issue of Arizona Highways .