For many of you here who are younger than I, you might not recognize the name "Curt Gowdy." Many my age and older grew up watching and listening to this man. I remember vividly, the man's elegant voice as he announced the Super Bowls that my beloved Steelers had won. He even announced the game where Franco Harris caught the "Immaculate Reception." I used to watch Mr. Gowdy do his famous "American Sportsman" show. It was a weekly show that he would hunt and fish with some of the most famous sports figures and celebrities of all time. In my book, he was a "sportsman's sportsman." I could go on and on about Curt Gowdy. He was well known among his peers as the "Cowboy Behind the Mic."

This is a commissioned piece that I was asked to do almost two years ago. After Curt passed away in February, things moved ahead with more commitment. As time went by between then and now, Cheryl, Curt's daughter, and I had discussed the portrait of her "Daddy." At first discussion, it was going to be a graphite in my tight style, but with my evolution into oils, we agreed that I would "paint the man." Paint the "man" in his true elements, that is what I did. The photograph that was provided to me by the Gowdy's photographer showed Curt sitting along a trout stream in Wyoming wearing his favorite Stetson, turquoise bolo tie, antelope pin, and his prized fly rod and reel. The Gowdys asked that I title this piece "The Cowboy On The River." Here, I give you a look at my finished piece.