My trip to Palo Duro Canyon

 

Here is a sight few ever get to see....

I got a chance to go out to Palo Duro Canyon in the Texas Panhandle to paint with John Cogan and his student for several days. For those of you who just like pictures... just scroll to your heart's content.

If you are curious about the art process... go to my art blog: russellcushmanart.blogspot.com. Where I tell about creative concerns...

A ruins in the foreground overlooks an awe-inspiring view of the historic canyon.

 

Cottonwoods line the trails along the creek.

 

 

The landscape can remind an artist of the red rock country around Sedona Arizona...

 

 

But during a mild dust storm... it looks more like the Smokeys.

 

 

Palo Duro is my choice for most versatile... and beautiful scenery in Texas.

 

A small herd of Texas Longhorns are reminders of the herd Charlie Goodnight brought to the canyon to start his cattle empire.

A reminder of a simpler time...

The old Fahey house at Bovay Ranch is one of the oldest houses in our area. I was told by a descendant that it had been built out of parts recycled from an original Fahey homestead in Washington County. These parts supposedly came out of a house that dated to around the Civil War or earlier, and were ferried across the Brazos and brought here by oxen. Martin Fahey came to Washington County, Texas right after the Civil War, and married Annie Cordelia Calhoun in 1872, and built this house around 1882, at what was known then as the Chatham place. The Faheys renamed it Walnut Grove Plantation. Navasota pastor and Real Estate broker Max Brand, and his Aunt Joanne (Smith) Urbanosky are at least two local people who are descended from the Faheys.

In the spring I always go out and paint the bluebonnets in "plein air," in the spirit of the French Impressionists. I fell in love with the old homestead and a mammouth redbud tree on the place, and had to paint it. I had to get special permission from the Boy Scouts, who now own the ranch, and it sure was worth it. Can't wait to go back next year, and see that tree in bloom!