The western collection has seven kits, and they range from a still life you can finish in a weekend to a weathered face that will take a few evenings of careful work. Here they are in order of difficulty, with what each one actually shows and where the time goes.

Boots on the Old Fence

Boots on the Old Fence is a cream cowboy hat resting on a pair of worn leather boots against a weathered wooden fence, a field of dry golden grass behind and a soft sky above. Big regions everywhere: the boots in a few browns, the fence in greys, the grass in golds, the sky in two or three pale tones. It is the easiest kit in the collection and the one we would give to someone who has never painted.

Prairie Windmill at Dusk

Prairie Windmill at Dusk is a metal windmill and a weathered barn beside a small stream in a prairie field, under a sky that runs from pink to orange as the sun goes down. Most of the canvas is sky in wide horizontal bands. The windmill is the only fine work: thin struts in the darkest color against the lightest part of the sky. Paint the sky first, let it dry, then lay the struts over it.

Desert Cactus and Cowboy Boots

Desert Cactus and Cowboy Boots is the decorative one: cacti in bloom and a pair of embroidered cowboy boots, drawn in a loose watercolor style, with green paddles, orange flowers and a dusty desert floor. It is a bright piece for a Western or Southwestern room, flatter and more graphic than the others. The embroidery on the boots is the only small work.

Desert Gallop

Desert Gallop is a brown horse with a white blaze galloping across the desert, black mane and tail streaming behind it and dust rising from its hooves. A red mesa sits low on the right under an orange and yellow sunset sky. The sky and the ground are generous regions; the horse is mid-difficulty, with the muscle picked out in a few browns, and the mane and tail are long dark shapes that go on quickly. It sits in the horse kits roundup too.

Cowgirl at the Mesa

Cowgirl at the Mesa is a woman in a cream cowboy hat, red fringed jacket and blue jeans, standing with her back to us and looking out over a red desert dotted with sagebrush. Flat-topped mesas line the horizon under a pale blue sky with a few clouds. Because you never see the face, the figure is simple. The fringe on the jacket and the sagebrush dots are the detail. It has some of the strongest color in the collection, red rock against blue sky.

Western Cowboy

Western Cowboy is a cowboy in a wide-brimmed black hat, a red neckerchief and a dark jacket, looking off to the side against an orange dusk sky. The warm palette is built from browns, reds and burnt orange. The hat and jacket are large dark shapes, the sky is soft, and the face in profile is the part that asks for care. A good first portrait, because the face is small relative to the canvas.

Authentic Cowboy

Authentic Cowboy is a weathered man in a cream cowboy hat and a red neckerchief against a warm sunset sky. The face has the fine detail and the sky is soft and easy. It is the hardest kit in the collection because a lined face is many small regions in close tones, and getting them in the right order is what makes it read. Buy it as your third or fourth kit, in 48 colors, and give it the 16x20 or the 20x26 canvas.

Sizes and where to start

All seven come in five sizes from 12x12 inches to a 23.5 inch square, in 24, 36 or 48 colors. The landscapes and the still life are fine at 36. The two cowboy portraits benefit from 48, which adds the mid tones that separate skin from shadow. Start with the boots or the windmill. The wider desert pictures without boots or hats are grouped under American landscapes.

Questions about the collection

Are these from photographs?

No. They are original illustrations drawn for the kits, which is why the outlines are clean and the regions are sensible sizes.

Can I get a western scene of my own horse or ranch?

Yes, from a photo, through the custom kit. Daylight, subject in focus, at least 1500 pixels on the short side.

Which one works as a gift?

Boots on the Old Fence. It is the easiest, and leather, wood and golden grass suit almost anyone's wall.