There are images that stop you with their beauty and images that stop you with their energy, and then there are the rare ones that do both simultaneously and leave you genuinely breathless. Running the Mountain is one of those images. A cowgirl on horseback rides above a surging herd of ranch horses cascading down a Wyoming mountain slope, her lasso raised and swinging with the practiced ease of someone who has done this a hundred times in terrain this demanding and found it natural every time — the horses below her a flowing river of dark and light, bay and grey and white and paint, their bodies pressed close in the urgency of the descent, the whole mass of them moving with the particular unstoppable momentum of a large herd given its head on open ground. The misty mountain peaks rise behind them in soft, atmospheric focus, the slopes forested and vast, the scale of the landscape making the cowgirl and her herd simultaneously epic and intimate — large enough to feel genuinely wild, close enough to feel genuinely real. A ranch dog works the edges of the herd below, another detail of authentic working ranch life that rewards the careful viewer. The black and white palette is the only possible choice for an image of this tonal complexity — the pale horses luminous against the dark mountain slope, the misty peaks dissolving into the sky, the cowgirl a small but utterly commanding figure above the flow of horses, her rope the single diagonal line that organizes the entire composition. This is Wyoming ranch life at its most spectacular and most authentic — a cowgirl doing extraordinary work in extraordinary country, and making it look completely natural. A natural companion to The Gather — Western Fine Art Print, The River Drive — Wyoming Ranch Horses Fine Art Print, Coming Home — Wyoming Ranch Horses Fine Art Print, and The Long Drive — Western Ranch Fine Art Print, Running the Mountain stands as the most epic and landscape-grand image in the western collection. On ChromaLuxe Metal or Lumachrome HD TruLife Acrylic, the luminous black and white tonal range, the atmospheric mountain backdrop, and the extraordinary kinetic energy of the herd and rider render with exceptional depth and presence — making Running the Mountain an extraordinary statement piece for any collector or large-scale interior installation where the full, uncompromising grandeur of the American West is the goal.

Limited edition of 50. Photo © copyright by Tamara Gooch.

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