Stunning Leather Portraits from the Prairies of Western Canada 

by Gene Fowler

“I have 56 tiny paintbrushes, boil my coffee in a pot, like roping moving things sometimes, shoeing horses, avoiding loud noises and running my truck out of gas,” says Rayanne Alm of Little Smoke Leather Co. in Red Deer County, Alberta, Canada, as an introduction on her Instagram account. Last year, she passed the 10,000 followers mark on her lively dialogue in cyberspace with customers, fellow makers and friends. 

Commenters on her page most often rhapsodize about the incredible detail in the portraits of horses and dogs that Rayanne creates on carved and hand-painted leather key tags and hat patches. (She’s also been known to tool and render the occasional landscape, flower, abstract design or cow on a YETI wrap, wrist cuff, dog collar or wild rag slide.) And, when I say her work is really, really good I don’t mean that it’s rilly, rilly good. I mean it’s REE-ly REE-ly good. 

Little Smoke puffs out its virtual signals from a kitchen table in an off-grid cabin “tucked back in the woods” and down a dirt road in the Alberta foothills. “I can peer out my kitchen window and watch the world turn green as I work!” Rayanne posted, in late April 2021. “Livin’ the dream.” 

The artist grew up on her family’s cattle ranch in Central Alberta. In a recent phone interview, she explained that she began painting animals and landscapes at a fairly young age. After high school, she moved around for a time, working in the forestry industry and for the Alberta government. Returning back to her home area, Rayanne resumed cowgirling on local ranches and started a farrier business. 

Back in 2020, she explained on Instagram that she started painting on leather after searching in vain for “the perfect brand patch.” Finally, she just decided to make one herself. And thus, about four years ago, Bar Roan Leather was born. Rayanne changed the name to Little Smoke Leather in April 2021. The new name was “inspired abstractly” by her favorite song by the Canadian singer Del Barber, “Big Smoke,” and more directly by her “wood-fired country home.” 

She taught herself leather work with the aid of YouTube tutorials, especially the instructional videos of Texas saddlemaker Don Gonzales, and through how-to’s and other info shared by a far-flung network of fellow makers on social media. Today, though she does leather work year round, she moonlights at Little Smoke while shoeing horses and doing ranch work and wrangling for hunting outfitters in the spring, summer and fall. Through the long Alberta winters, she’s on the one-woman, painted-leather production line full time. 

Rayanne told me that she prefers to use four-ounce European veg-tanned leather that she obtains from the Tandy store in Calgary, about an hour and a half south of her cabin in the Eagle Hill area. When she needs something heavier than four-ounce, she heads for Longview Leather in Longview, a bit further south. Both Calgary and Longview are cowboy towns situated on Alberta’s famed Cowboy Trail. Calgary, of course, hosts the legendary 10-day Calgary Stampede each July, a rodeo-and-more event billed as the “Greatest Show on Earth.” 

“I buy the leather in person,” she explained, “because I have to get my hands on it before I buy it.” And while she orders some supplies online, she also buys her paints, Angelus Acrylic Leather Paint, in person. 

Like so many good makers of unique custom items, Little Smoke’s lone employee has more business than she can handle. To keep orders current and not create a backlog, she opens up her online shop for customer requests at certain times, taking custom orders and offering items on hand for sale. Prospective clients refresh their phones and click like crazy, but all custom spots and pre-made items often sell out in three minutes. As one Instagram fan mused, “It’s a real testament to her artwork!” 

Once an order is placed—often for a memento that recreates the beloved face of a deceased horse or dog—Rayanne begins carving, detail beveling, staining, painting and satin finishing. Those steps are followed by beveling and slicking the edges, and finally, stitching. Little Smoke patrons who successfully navigate the digital queue are enchanted. Speaking of a blue-eyed beauty of a pooch named Lexi, one customer wrote, “I can’t thank you enough for this keepsake of my baby girl! It’s absolutely stunning!” 

“I was so excited when this arrived, you absolutely nailed our girl and I LOVE IT!!” wrote the owner of another good dog named Abby. “I remember refreshing my phone every minute for when the store opened, so worth it! You are a master of your craft!” 

Perhaps, someday, Rayanne will concentrate 100% of her time on Little Smoke. But as much as that would delight potential customers who haven’t made it through the ordering process, I fear it might kill a little bit of the Little Smoke lady’s soul. She’s such an outdoorsy, back-country adventurer that I think she needs that communion to be all she can be….none of which takes away from her devotion to Little Smoke Nation. 

“I love hearing from customers,” she wrote last July, “hearing your stories and meeting your beloved four-legged comrades through art. I’m grateful I get to come home in the evenings and paint with a purpose! Also, thanks always for bearing with me in patience as I navigate one small business alongside my other full-time job commitments. If I could sit and paint all day I would. (I’d probably get fat tho.)” 

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In addition to the brilliant artwork and lively commentary, another interesting thing about following Little Smoke’s Instagram account is that it’s like reading the journal of someone—with all her quirks and curiosities—who lives close to the land and the agricultural and ranching traditions that sustain life for the legions in the cities. “If you like it then you should have put a brand on it,” she proclaims in one post. “If Beyoncé́ was a rancher that’s what she’d have said instead…It’s a good day when I can just paint heifers all afternoon…The rumors are true, I love cows more than all the other things. And also flipping through old editions of Western Horseman just to look at the pictures…Is it travel mug season? It’s gravel roads, windows down, classic country, cow dog in the passenger seat, coffee mug in hand season…My creative process is a mess, but alas, so is my life. Got a handful of projects on the go in various stages of unfinishedness. If there is a word in the English dictionary for unfinishedness, please let me know…I can’t believe most days that I get to wake up, light my fire, make a coffee and make art for a living and I’m so grateful for everyone of you who have made this possible.” 

Many of the posts feature Little Smoke’s faithful heeler pup, Fergus, aka “my shop unhelper.” “My brand rep is unpaid and unimpressed,” she says of Fergus in one post. “Fergus is feeling sad after getting kicked in the head by a cow again,” she writes in another. “Some days me and Ferg are out shoeing horses and biting cows, and some days we think we’re better suited to gentle tasks like painting, baking muffins and sleeping next to the wood stove.” 

Readers also get a fascinating glimpse of Canadian life. “Wild rag season is NOT OVER! Not in Alberta at least. The fact that it is forecasted to snow all week proves this. And also, the fact that it snows almost every month of the year. This also means wild rag slide season is also not over…One of the most amazing experiences is hearing an elk bugling on an early morning in the fall…I’m grateful to call this beautiful country home, where the sky is big, the landscapes are vast, the air is clean, and ‘Sorry!’ said with a smile, is a friendly Canadian greeting.” 

Most importantly, Rayanne Alm never loses sight of the ultimate source of this world and all its wonders. “I’d like to be an artist,” she adds, “who gives glory to God for the gifts and talents He’s given each of us. When I paint, I’m really working for the Lord.” 

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