Surprised

Just massaging the shapes now. (Yeah, I know. This is the fourth painting I have "in the works.")

You know, I'm always surprised when it actually starts to look like something.

Maybe I shouldn't be.

'Spose I'll grow out of that sooner or later… come to expect it.

In a way I hope I don't.

The reason the idea/inspiration - whatever it was that came to me, (to paint this), I spose, was the weather we've been having lately - kinda windy but warm and overcast at the same time. When it's like this, I always remember surprising a young buck out by the barn one day.

Deer aren't generally in the habit of wandering up so close to the house, but when they do, you're reminded of how big they are… and magnificent.

Anyway, it was just before dark and he was busy munching something on the ground beside the bunkhouse - prolly mulberries - and I was headed to the stalls at the rear of the barn. I came around the front of the barn, not paying much attention to much of anything, except where I was headed, wondering if I'd find what it was I was after. And you know when you get that feeling that something's out of place? or someone's watching you? or there's someone there that shouldn't be, or something? I stopped dead in my tracks and slowly looked over toward him. At the same time he raised his head and there we were, face-to-face, staring at each other, maybe twenty-five feet apart.

He didn't get spooked until I had the bright idea of getting my camera from the house to take a picture. I tried to retrace my steps backwards but as soon as I moved, he took a little jump forward, turned, and was halfway across the field.

Pretty cool.