Woodrow Blagg’s large-scale drawings capture scenes from the American West with a photorealistic sensitivity to detail. Awash in shades of grey, Blagg’s depictions of cowboys at work are done entirely in graphite. This fine-grained pencil work evokes an ethereal tone befitting of the desolate grace of the landscape of West Texas. Blagg currently resides in Pennsylvania, although his travels through Europe, the indigenous communities of Canada, and the ranches of Texas all inform his work’s exploration of the relationship between man and nature. His time spent immersed in the rhythm of ranch life in Texas during the 1980s was especially formative and laid a rich observational foundation for his cowboy drawings. Educated at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts (PAFA) in Philadelphia, Blagg draws on a diverse array of both visual and literary influences. Argentinian writers Macedonia Fernandez and Jorge Luis Borges in particular have shaped Blagg’s depictions of the human act of being in the world: a constant ebb and flow between action and stillness, immersion and alienation.