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WAXAHACHIE PAINT-OUT OCTOBER 2026

The Waxahachie Paintout has an entire month ahead of time to paint in Ellis County Texas for the upcoming event in Waxahachie proper.  I enjoy painting ahead of time in the entire county as it does not have the anxiety of painting quickly.  This year a friend and I started by painting several days at the Sugar Ridge Ranch in Ellis county.  Ive painted there for several years and I have some favorite spots.  This particular tree is a Mesquite tree that must be one hundred or more old.  It is huge and has beautiful twisted limbs among its feathery leaves.  This year I painted it as it frames the rolling hills of the ranch through its branches.

Arriving early in the morning there is a film in the air that gives everything a soft look.  Autumn is just around the corner and the oranges of the season are beginning to touch the edges of all the vegetation.  This view is from a location high on the ranch that seems to have miles and miles to view.  

There are hay bales sequestered in every area of this ranch for the multitude of animals that live here.  These particular ones were tucked under a grove road live oak and oak thees.  The sun was just beginning to rise and produced a beautiful cool backlighting for the bales.  

Behind the hay bales I found this tiny tractor.  I've never seen one before quite like it.  It was orange and yellow.  Its tires were flat and I assumed that it just out of service.  But it turned out that it was involved in hay baling and workers arrived to fill the tires and fill the tank and off it went.  Luckily I was just about finished!  

Okay, time to go the Waxahachie proper.  Behind the Feed Store there are the usual silos and various parts and pieces of storage equipment for their winter  animals.  I love them.  They are always covered with rust and overgrown bushes but they are like huge sculptures that are the life blood of the animals that have been raised on surrounding ranches.  Like an Erector set they hover over the surrounding ground so large that they are just about impossible to take down.  On every town in Texas the has acattle  industry you will find these magnificent constructions.  

Waxahachie is a county sea t for Ellis County and it is one of the most beautiful ones in Texas  Along with the gingerbread houses that surround the town square it has been the location for numerous movies.