Columnist Susan Snyder: Van Troba makes artful life change

Monday, Nov. 29, 2004 | 8:23 a.m.

Charley Van Troba's images come straight out of the real West via the end of his paintbrushes, pens and pencils.

Van Troba lives in Kingston, a village in the middle of Nevada's scenic Smoky Valley.

Like many of its Silver State brethren, Kingston is named for a mine that today exists only in history books and in the rusted ruins on Nevada's hillsides. Discovery of gold and silver and the subsequent founding of Kingston Mine in 1863 put the village on the map.

But the mine is now closed, leaving Kingston with a population of about 200. Some are full-time residents with small ranches. Others are seasonal dwellers.

Van Troba considers himself lucky to be among the former. He, his wife Celeste and their children Dane, 14, and Meredith, 13, moved to Kingston from Sandy Valley last year when Van Troba retired from the carpentry business.

"I just changed my life," Van Troba said. "I got tired of the rat race and just changed it."

Van Troba now works on the R.O. Triple T Ranch. About 3,000 head of cattle graze its land, which covers roughly 1 million acres between U.S. 50 and Tonopah.

Van Troba's mother is an artist, and his brother teaches art at a high school in Fresno, Calif. While he still lived in Sandy Valley, Van Troba studied under Las Vegas artist Steve Lesnick.

Van Troba draws inspiration from ranch work, creating current scenes of the West in oils, watercolors, pencil or pen and ink.

A lone cowboy sits atop his mount at the edge of vast range. Wild stallions fight for leadership rights. A Southern Paiute woman gazes across the desert with eyes set in a face crinkled by years.

"Her name is Grace," Van Troba said. "She's a Moapa Paiute. I took photos of her, then drew her."

Van Troba used to sell his paintings at Las Vegas' annual Cowboy Christmas exposition, hosted during the National Finals Rodeo. He also has competed in shows in Arizona, California and Nebraska and will be at Elko's National Cowboy Poetry Gathering in January.

Van Troba won't be at the NFR this year, but people still can see his images at Cowboy Christmas. Half a dozen of his drawings are incorporated into designs for Stillmeadow Pottery, a California-based company that has a booth at this year's expo. (Check www.stillmeadowpottery.com.)

Jim Ralph, Stillmeadow's owner, said the designs are more real than imagined.

"Charley cowboyed all the way up through Colorado and Wyoming," he said.

Van Troba's wife works as a school bus driver and aide at the school their children attend in nearby Austin.

"She's been looking at this country for 20 years," he said. "And the kids just fell right into place."

Still, he concedes, life in Kingston isn't for everybody.

"The distance of things is hard with the gas prices now," Van Troba said. "The bank is 70 miles away. Our big grocery store is in Fallon or Reno (100 miles or more).

"But it's quiet and there's the beautiful mountains. I love this country up here," he added. "It the last of the true West, I think, where good old cowboys are still cowboys."