Randy

Randy and Katherine

Met the horses today! And Randy. Randy owns the black mare, who was raced as a 3-year-old; she has an impressive pedigree that goes back to Secretariat. Katherine owns the 26-year-old gelding (currently covered in mud). They partner on taking care of the horses, and we agreed that I'll take over for her while I'm here, feeding, hoof-picking, and brushing 3-4 times a week. Randy says we can ride as often as I like too, either in the round pen or bareback across the pasture to the creek where the horses like to splash.

Randy also has a community of artist friends in the area, and we're going to go to the Fredericksburg first Friday art walk together this week and meet some of them. This too is terrific.

Day 3

First day up at 6:30 am to feed the chickens and geese. It drizzled overnight; the grass is wet, and the low clouds mute the burbling of the hens. No eggs this morning.

The goat herd (and Molly the ancient burro) were at the goose pond this morning and the goat that was on the wrong side of the fence yesterday finally jumped the fence to rejoin them, getting stuck momentarily in the barbed wire but clearing it before I had made it across the backyard to help.

The summer is going to fly by. Right now I'm distracted by what's happening at home and whether I have a good reason (or really any reason) to go into town, but once I settle in and start painting I think it will be easier to be present and tap in to that obsessive creative vein. The minimal human interaction I anticipate during the weeks between Katherine and Aven leaving and Matt's visit means that I get to daydream the days away, and that should make for good paintings.

Meantime I'm sketching.

Ottmers ranch

Chuck's cattle herd is on the far side of the goose pond making a racket. The bull is out there grazing with them, and the calves are running and bucking around their mothers. The geese are territorial and hiss and honk when I get too close. One of the chickens has gotten into the back yard. Doves and swallows and purple martins are swooping and calling; there's a hummingbird in the sage; a wasp the size of my thumb is knocking against the screen door. Thunder is rumbling in the distance. It's not exactly quiet.

My patron Katherine and her daughter leave Friday to join the rest of their family in Alaska. After that I'll be out here on my own through mid-August (except for Matt's already much-anticipated visit in a few weeks). Katherine's father-in-law lives down the hill and her sister-in-law lives up the hill, so I'm not totally isolated, but it's a half-hour drive to Fredericksburg with nothing but ranch land in between.

It will be interesting to see what paintings come out of this trip. I drove here from Oakland with 15 5' x 3' canvases and a half-dozen sketchbooks with the intention to do nothing but draw and paint, and hopefully come home with at least a half-dozen good paintings to shop to galleries. Totally new environment, on my own, away from the usual influences and distractions... I think it will be good. Plus, as Matt points out, it's a story... Ani went to Texas for the summer and this is the series of paintings that came out of the trip. Katherine already has a friend who has seen my work online and is eager to buy a painting that was done on the Ottmers ranch so we'll add that to the story too.

So far it's been dreamlike. Hard to believe that I'm here, hard to believe that I made the long drive by myself with the cat, hard to believe that this was ever an opportunity that I considered not taking. Because Matt asked "Why not go to Texas and paint for the summer?", because Danya let me stay in her house another couple of months, because Dad traded my Ranger for his F150... right back to getting evicted... I'm here. And it's awesome.