While making my Grand Circuit of the US in 1978, I drew a lot of butterflys and moths from life…for some reason this sketch scanned blurry.
Few artists who spend time in Lincoln can resist sketching this reconstructed tower. The earliest Spanish settlers would take refuge here during Apache raids.
Here in military uniform, is Lew Wallace…later Governor of New Mexico Territory who bargained with the Kid while writing “Ben Hur”
I forget who this is…maybe Murphy or Chisum…
This is the Kid’s good friend and rustling associate, Charles Bowdre and his wife Manuela. Charlie was killed by Sheriff Pat Garrett’s posse at Stinking Springs and is now buried beside the kid in Fort Sumner, NM.
Of course, Billy the Kid, is the focus of much of the fuss in old Lincoln Town.
Matt had a fire at his rental house, so he moved in with Ula Joe, a Texan who worked for The Trust. The Trust was an entity which owned a number of historical buildings in Lincoln. Joe later moved back to Midland/Odessa and resumed his career as a teacher. Great guy.
My lovely wife Ann and I are revisiting some spots in New Mexico next week where we honeymooned 25 years ago. So prior to our absence this week I am posting various scribblings from a sketchbook I kept while in Lincoln, NM in 1978. Here is my good old buddy, the late lamented Matt.
On St. Patrick’s Day, 1879, the Irish-American Henry McCarty aka Henry Antrim aka William H. Bonney aka Kid Antrim aka Billy the Kid met secretly with Governor Lew Wallace (a famed Civil War general) of New Mexico to make a deal regarding his activities during the Lincoln County War. The Kid agreed to submit to token arrest and give testimony in exchange for amnesty. However, the district attorney refused to play along with the arrangement and the Kid slipped jail and resumed his outlaw ways. While governor, Wallace wrote the beloved novel “Ben Hur”. I drew this with Rapidograph, brush and ink and it is one of the series of T-shirts sold at the Billy the Kid Pageant.
This dog probably owned Spook’s girlfriend Linda down in Las Cruces. On my first visit to New Mexico, in March of ’77, we rendezvoused there. A gang of us were headed for the Grand Prix in Long Beach, CA. I had enchiladas (from “Gil’s”) for the first time and learned to play to play cribbage while listening to Boston’s “More Than A Feeling”. Ah, the ’70s!