Way Back When

"Cattle Crossing"

color pencil drawing  © Bruce A. Morrison

(click on image for a larger view) 

Way back when I was a kid, I used to spend a great deal of time walking the farm country west of our town where I grew up in NW Iowa.  I had (still have) a good friend whose family had a large farming operation and a good herd of what I believe were Angus cattle back then.  Well maybe they were Limosins or some other breed of predominately black cows, I don't know, but I got quite used to walking their paths and occasionally walking through the herds.  

Lately I've been walking several places in the "neighborhood", and really the only kind of surroundings I care to traverse are pasture and woodland, but mostly the river and creek bottoms...great place for an interesting stroll with the cameras. 

One thing about cows, they seem to know the best stream crossings, and I usually trust them.  Some time back I was walking along with a scattered herd, along Waterman Creek near here; it was a wonderful little stretch of stream mostly uninterrupted by fence lines.  While taking photographs along the creek bottom I noticed this great old Ash tree casting shade along a sandy bar in the bend of the creek.  It was early morning and the cast shadow and early sunlight were making for a really nice image.

I don't always think "photograph" when shooting scenes like this...I often get an idea or feeling for the scene and just go with it.  Later when I'm back in the studio processing files on the computer, the image itself decides whether or not something "stays" as a photograph or gets used as material to do a painting or drawing from.

As you can see, I ended up doing a small color pencil drawing of the "Cattle Crossing" there along the creek...and yes, I did cross there :)

There isn't much time for anything but studio work here right now - the 2011 Artisans Road Trip is coming up fast!!!   I do hope you'll set aside the weekend of September 30 (Friday from 4:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m.), and October 1st and 2nd (Saturday and Sunday from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.)!  It should be a beautiful weekend and we're really looking forward to it!

Hope to see you here at the studio!!!