Gallery

Pond Moss

The young goats like to play on the rocks, jumping from one side to the other, on the upper end of this spring fed duck pond. The moss was unusually lovely in the fall of 2010. The pond reflected that wonderful cerelean blue sky that always takes me unawares.

Watercolor on paper 15" x 20"

Prints are available.

 

Going to the Barn

Looking out the south door of the house shows an everchanging scene. This day the tree was blooming outrageously and contrasted with the white chairs and table. The surprise was seeing Dust Mop traipsing across the path to the barn. I had tossed a blue tarp across the fence so included it in the painting. This painting is for sale. Prints are available.

Watercolor on paper, 15" x 18"

 

 

 

The Buck Barn

The wood interior of the buck barn is dynamic. Doughboy happened to be eating hay that day so he was included in this pastel painting. The original pastel is for sale as well as professional prints.

pastel on treated paper, 16" x 22"

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The Road Home

The air was clear on this early fall morning. The sky in the west showed promise of rain. Sumac and big blue stem lined the road. It is up to you whether you are going or coming home.

The original pastel painting resides in Wichita, Kansas. Prints are available. Pastels are difficult to reproduce. because of the way the medium lays on the paper. The color does not soak into the paper so there tiny spots that show through in a photograph. That means that you don't want to get up close and think of it as an oil painting or watercolor where the pigment does flow together and permeate the canvas or paper.

Pastel on treated paper, 20" x 24"

prints are available

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I'm Going to Read Those Books

The books are piled on the chair. They look like intense reading. Maybe it's the pretty little kitchen chair and the paint brushes to the bottom right that really take my attention. This watercolor on paper is for sale and professsionally made prints are available.

watercolor on paper, 16" x 20"

 

Tea Pot and Bread

Must be breakfast after some preparation. Corn fritters, vegetables, bread, a lamp to light the way, and flowers to entertain the eye. The cloths and table could have come from the house I bought in Meade, Kansas many years ago. The owner, a woman in her 80s, had taken part in the Oklahoma Territory Land Rush. When I painted her portrait she was dismayed. She saw an old woman although I painted her as ageless and beautiful.

oil on canvas, 16" x 20"

Prints will be available.

 

Do Shah Shamshera - Kabul

The carpets were like jewels. The American man had been called to the carpet seller’s stall by one of the carpets; particularly lovely and rather small. She whispered to him, “Buy me. I will show you wonders you can’t even imagine.” It was no use to resist and he found himself paying more than he could afford to the crafty old man.

Before sunrise she woke him whispering, “We shall go now, you and I, into the sky.” And so he took her, the carpet, into the courtyard, spread her soft pile on the stones, grabbed his big yellow tom cat in his arms, and sat down.

As in a dream they rose into the sky, the three of them, the waking city of Kabul flowing below them. Rooster crow, seller calls, bombed buildings, Flower Street. He looked up at last and saw the minarets of the Do Shah Shamshera, golden and shimmering in the new day.

Oil on canvas, 24x30

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watercolor on paper 9x12

 

 

Mabel the House Guinea

Mabel was hatched in the summer of 2007. She was very young when found writhing on her back in the yard. For the next week she became progressively worse. Mabel struggled to stand and when she did her head was suspended upside down making it impossible for her to eat or drink on her own. So, I fed her pureed chicken meat and starter mixed with water, and gave her water with an eye dropper. Over the next several days she started lifting and turning her head so she could drink by herself and eat regular bird food. Still she was one sad, lonely little bird. Spring of 2008 I brought a chick that had been stepped on into the house. At first I fed the chick and gave her water with that same eye dropper. By the end of May the chick could get around by somersaulting across the floor. Gradually she learned to walk again .She and Mabel became fast friends. Mabel began singing and whistling. During the day in good weather the chick that is now a little hen goes outside. Mabel can go out with supervision meaning that I sit with her. She can’t be left along because the other guineas would attack and kill her. Any guinea that is crippled might attract the attention of a predator.

Mabel laid her first egg on August 1st, 2008. Don't think she has a clue what it is.

December 27, 2010 update on Mabel. She molted this fall and is still dropping a few feathers. She is not able to groom herself so she will come up to me to be scratched. She lifts her feathers so I can reach her skin. Mabel particularly likes baby chicks. She follows them around the lets them eat with her unless I have given her cat or dog food. She alternates sleeping beside my bed and beside the chicks enclosure.

When I sit on the floor and comb the dogs she seems to be jealous. She races across my feet, back and forth, until I pay attention to her. At night Mabel seems to keep up a conversation with herself, whistling and clicking softly.

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Nefertiti the Cat

The goats love on the cats and the chickens. There is one little chick that tries to roost on the back of one goat or another. When the goats are bored they will fuss with the chickens or just follow one around with her nose in the chicken's feathers. More often they will just mess with a cat and Nefertiti is ususally a likely candidate.

But now, as you can see Nefertiti has moved indoors. She goes outside for awhile but a little cold weather and she is back inside lolling all over the computer table, keyboard, books, me, ...

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It all started with a little rooster who was found to the east on the Public Lands. He was fuzzy and little and the name "Dust Mop" seemed to fit him. A quick look at Murray McMurray determined that he was a silkie, or at least part silkie with turquoise ear flaps and five toes. That little brown and grey rooster has fathered, or grandfathered, well, maybe great-grandfathered, all of the chicks running around out there. The part silkie hens are fantastic mothers, defending her chicks at risk of her like and never leaving them until they are big enough to get along without her. Then, of course, she goes off to play with the roosters, again.

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Woopsie

Woopie's paternity has been settled by DNA testing on hair from her, her mother Tabeetha, and one of the two suspected bucks. At first the two gentlemen goats concerned declared that it must have been immaculate conceptions by the Great Goat God. After a little reality therapy they dictated the following letter to Tabeetha.

Dear Miss Tabeetha Cat;
We understand that you intend to petition for kid support on behalf of your offspring, Woopsie. In an effort to avoid possible unnecessary expenditure of time and money, we are offering information that might affect your intent.
We, Cletis and myself (Suliman was in another pasture at that time), remember the day you were found in our pasture, your sleek brown coat shining in the sunlight as you grazed increasingly closer to the electric netting that separates our pastures. You had been ducking under the netting for some time but we had no interest as you were definitely an adolescent and we were doing our best to be ethical about the whole affair.
Since the grasses are the same on both sides of the fence we must assume that you had alterior motives on the particular day in question. You must understand that Cletis and I are upstanding in the community and take pride in the fact that we have as much control as any other mammal, including humans. However, that day you tempted us beyond endurance.
We must admit that we three had a good time but that Cletis is really a hog when it comes to possession the object of his affection. Thus it came to be that the three of us were found by our barn. I certainly looked innocent and honestly cannot remember exactly what took place. However, Cletis was standing between you and me and moaning his adoration for you.
In our concluding statement we wish to state that you certainly looked happy at the time we were discovered. Therefore, we have reached the conclusion that the matter is not all our fault and that you must admit definite culpability in the proceedings.
We wish you and your daughter, Woopsie, the best. We became acquainted with her through a more solid fence and know she is certainly a sweet thing just like her mother although we never did have a chance to prove it.

All the Best,
Doughboy and Cletis