Article: By the Horns

The arresting artistic style of Charles Schridde takes hold of its subject and its viewer, and the whole spirit of rodeo as well.

As a painter, he is one who has busted out of the chute. "So much has happened to me in the last couple of months," says Charles Schridde, a San Juan Capistrano, Calif.-based painter whose action-packed rodeo images and in particular his bull rider images - have caught on big with the rodeo crowd.

The American Cancer Society sold one of Schridde's donated works, The Cattle Baron's Ball, for $20,000 at its September fundraiser in Dallas, after having showcased the image on its catalog cover. The Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association has commissioned him to paint a portrait of Ty Murray during National Finals time. And he will have a gallery showing in Las Vegas during the Finals as well.

Schridde's work was to be on exhibit Oct. 25-31 - a time frame that coincides with the Pro Bull Riders' Finals-at Galleria di Sorrento, at the Forum Shops at Caesar's. Another show has been scheduled there for the NFR crowd, with his works hanging from Nov. 29 until around Christmas.

"He's a pallette-knife painter," says Jeff Kamka, gallery director. "His canvases are thick with paint. It's an impressionistic style, but using the western theme, He's definitely getting a lot of attention right now."

Schridde began his career in art as an advertising illustrator. "Then I switched to photography," he says' adding with a laugh that "it was easier. 11

By the time he retired, however, he was ready to crack out the paints again.

"It's funny - I didn't paint for 25 years, but when I started again, I was better than when I quit," he says. "I guess you can learn just by watching. I think doing photography helped me in painting, too."

Schridde had spent much time painting automobiles in such a way that they appeared to be in motion. That was Detroit's emphasis for many years, he says. But after pioneering some techniques in that vein, Schridde realized he could apply them to other subject matter-such as the rodeo action he loved.

He says he much admires rodeo cowboys. "They're real gentlemen and they have the old-fashioned Christian ethics we were taught to have when we were kids," he says.

Schridde markets most of his own paintings and self-publishes his prints. His work can be viewed on his website at www.schriddestudios.com.

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