Saturday, September 5, 2015

Crabs, Wildlife, Landscapes, BEARS !

Wow ! How I love to paint all of these imaginary and real pictures of wildlife. However, what will become of these wild creatures in another fifty years? Would you believe that some people wish these beautiful wild animals were less of a burden to home owners and could care less when they become extinct.

Recently, I had the pleasure of teaching a few fundamental and advanced painting techniques to my daughter and her friend on one day in July while spending the night at her house. She and her friend, a potentially, very talented new artist were anxious to learn more about how to create depth and shading to help eliminate a flat look in their paintings and drawings. These are not my greatest assets in painting, however, I showed them all I know in a productive, crash course between their young children clammering for attention along with the three dogs, chickens and bears wandering around.

Yes, bears ! They come visit my daughter's backyard on occasion as well as the neighbors. Neighbors spread the word when a bear is seen around or scampering across yards. You have to be on the lookout for their presence, especially when the kids are playing outside. They usually run away from people, but you never know what they will do, especially if they are hungry. It is against the law to feed them, I'm told. I heard a bear early one morning last fall, when I went out for a cigarette on the deck. Everything was perfectly quiet, you could hear a pin drop. That's when I hear him give out a sudden bark when he awoke to smell cigarett smoke. Both of us not moving, we both listened quietly for sounds of each other's presence. Then I heard the snap, crack of branches as he left from his den just over the rise and headed towards the nearby stream. For some reason I felt a relief that he was gone. I'm not sure why I am afraid o bears. Someone took a picture of a big black bear trying to get into the Giant Food Store over the Fourth of July this year and it was posted in the local newspaper. I imagine that was a sight to behold in person. Once my granddaughter looked out the back door to see another bear checking out the chicken coop. It was definitely not smart of her husband to place the compost pile near the back deck!

My concern being that food is getting scarcer for these wild animals because of mankind's development of the land and use of its resources. This overabundance of humanity's greed to housing will one day culminate in the extinction of bears and other wildlife - maybe sooner than you think. A sad day when we do not have bears and deer and other wild animals roaming the landscapes.
Keep the faith !
Your friend,
Cooky :)

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