This painting was created during a 2025 summer motorcycle painting trip into Montana.  The temperature was close to 100, not unlike the day of the battle in 1876.  The monuments on this hill mark the locations where the bulk of Custer’s force succumbed to the overwhelming  onslaught of Indian warriors.  The base of the hill connects to the Deep Ravine to the right, an ill-fated escape route to the river below.

 The site has a powerful effect on visitors of all kinds, perhaps deepened by the presence of tombstones throughout the miles-wide location.  A companion painting, “Calhoun Hill” (posted earlier), is from the same day.

The size of my “road” paintings is limited by what I can fit into my field kit which rides in my weather-proof saddlebag.  I consider these as finished works as opposed to studies for larger paintings and believe they offer an intimacy unavailable to a viewer of larger paintings.