Texas Cowboy Boots - 1892
Pen & Ink on Antique Map
 
Texas is the State of the Cowboy Boot. It was adopted as the Texas State footwear on June 15, 2007. The vaquero-style boot brought to the Americas from Spain in the 1600s originally inspired the cowboy boot itself. The tall shaft, loose fit and lack of laces were features that helped prevent a cowboy from being drugged if bucked off a horse. Riding boots date back for centuries but the basic pattern of the cowboy boot as we know today was created during the post-Civil War trail drives between 1866 and 1890.
 
Texas Cowboy Boots
I combine antique atlas maps, the art of pen & ink drawing then using my version of stippling into my own creative perspectives. The background for this drawing of cowboy boots is a Texas map, which was published in 1892 in a Crams Atlas. It is framed with patinaed copper to approximately 20 X 28 inches.