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He visited numerous museums while filming in Mexico and began painting by trying to emulate the styles of the various artists on display. He has been greatly influenced by his surroundings as demonstrated by the wide variety of styles he uses. After moving to his ranch in New Mexico, Mike appreciates the cowboy way of life and its landscapes even more and it shows in his work.

For the past two years in New Mexico, Mike has worked with world-renowned artist Amado Pena Jr. and with Lou Diamond Phillips through the Legacy Art Albuquerque Foundation which raises scholarship funds for Pena’s “Art Has Heart” Foundation.  Mike paints a lot of cowboy/Western, vaquero/ Mexican, landscape Americana and Mexicana and Native American subjects. Among the list of collectors of Mike’s artwork are Red Adair, Chuck Connors, Alex Cord, John Corella, Jimmy Doohan, Eddie Gaylord Jr, Ben Johnson, Anne Lockhart, and Casey Tibbs. To see Mike’s art, click here.

Mike has also teamed up with Arizona’s finest Country and Cowboy Western Singer/Songwriter, Lee Alexander, to form the synergistic duo “Vaquero & The Cowboy.” The partnership is an amazing one. Together for just three years, the duo was nominated in four categories by the Academy of Western Artists for their first self-titled album. Their second album “Justice” is already out-selling the first album. The Former Texas Rangers Association has named “Justice” (the title song) as one of the top ten best Texas Ranger songs ever written and “The Luckiest Cowboy” (both of which they wrote) is in George Strait’s hands (it is one of 36 songs out of 4,800 submissions) for possible inclusion on his next album. They are performing at some of the world’s largest Cowboy Western events, and writing music for two upcoming western movies, which Mike is also producing. The music is an eclectic mix of Tex-Mex and Vaquero music, originals, and classic cowboy songs. The songs are presented in both English and Spanish.

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