Texas Hill Country

When Blue Skies Turn Gray
oil on canvas
8 x 10
$150

   I went down to the Texas Hill Country this weekend to take a sculpture down to the Insight Gallery for their Christmas show and to attend the opening of the two man show of Scott Christianson and Quang Ho. There is so much to see in this region and in addition to the activities in the gallery I intended to do a couple of paintings or studies but it began to rain almost as soon as I started and the rain was very persistent. But considering that we need it so badly I'm not going to complain at all. The one I started was of a field with some Angus cattle in it under cloudy skies. I worked on it until the rain became too much for me.

A small herd of bison.

One of the things I love about this area  is all of the wildlife. There are thousands of deer in the area as well as bison, longhorns, sheep, goats and exotic animals like zebra, black buck antelopes, camels, and other animals from around the world. These of course provide so much inspiration for wildlife and animal artists.


I found a bit of fall color but not much. Like the rest of the state most of the plants that were green and are not any more have changed color because they are dieing from the drought not because of cooler temperatures.

Fredericksburg house.

Another Fredericksburg House

Fredericksburg is such a great little town. It was founded long ago by German settlers. One of the interesting features of it is the architecture of the houses. Some of them are Sunday houses. These were small houses built by the farmers of the area  for their families to use on the weekends when they came into town for church. These are mostly built of stone and native timber and they were built to last.

An old barn at the Sauer Beckerman Living History Farm

Sheep on the farm

An old wagon at the farm.

So much of our state's history has been lovingly preserved in this area, much to the appreciation of artists from across Texas. There are old farm houses, barns, farm animals, wind mills, wagons, and views of great natural beauty everywhere one looks. As usual I came back with lots of reference photos. I have a lot to tell about events at the gallery but I will save that for another post.

Trip to the ranch.

 

Texas Hill Country
8 x 10
oil on canvas

     I spent last weekend down in the Texas Hill Country at a friend's ranch in Leakey. One of the neat things  about this ranch was that all the gates we passed through and we drove through about 5 to get to the house were electric. (In the old days you had to get out and open and close each gate. ) This ranch really means a lot to the family who owns it. When the grandfather passed away a small portion of the ranch was turned into a family cemetery so he could be buried on the land he loved.
I went down with my sister and  my twin nephews to pick up another nephew who was at camp in Vanderpool. My brother in-law is mountain climbing and my oldest nephew is fly fishing in Wyoming. I brought my art supplies but didn't have much time to paint. I did manage to work on two studies. The one above was painted on the front porch of the house looking out across the pastures to the hills in the distance. I left the fences out.

The Ranch House

There were so many things for the kids to do. We drove around to look at game in the evenings, hiked along the river looking for fossils and relics, played games, fed the animals, and shot skeet and had target practice.

An orphaned fawn.

This s a white tailed orphan fawn that my nephews fell in love with. There were Axis and White Tail deer all over the ranch as well as all kinds of birds including several varieties of woodpeckers, hummingbirds, doves, buzzards, hawks, a king fisher, and what I'm pretty sure was a bald eagle.

A view of the Frio River behind the house,

The Frio River was right behind the house. The river was very shallow, thanks to the drought that Texas is suffering but the water was very clear. We could see catfish and sunfish swimming in the deeper parts. Normally the Frio is a great river for rafting, swimming, and canoeing but it will need a lot of rain before there is enough water for those activities. I didn't get to paint it yet, but it is sure on my list of things to paint.

Two of the roping horses on the ranch.

These were some of the ranch horses. There were also Mexican roping steers and a herd of Charolais cross cattle on the ranch. My nephews really liked the horses a lot. They struggled to find a few blades of grass to feed them, with the lack of rain this was not easy to do. There is a great arena where the cowboys practice roping a couple evenings a week. It would have been fun to watch but unfortunately they weren't doing it while we were there.