Robert Knudson
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close encounters of the animal kind - part 2

7/20/2016

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More plein air adventures...

It was a beautiful day on a painting trip in the Teton mountains area of Wyoming.  I had driven a road in a wilderness location which ended up in a small parking area.  I parked the van with the back end toward some underbrush. Behind that growth was a swamp. My wife was with me, and she put a folding chair next to the front door of the van while I went looking around.

Suddenly I hear her anxiously calling me and she was pointing behind the van. There was the sound of something crashing through the underbrush. As I hurried back to her, I thought it might be a moose (a number of them had been spotted throughout the area). But as I got close to the van, there was a mama black bear, with two young cubs—total danger!

She had sent the cubs high up a pine tree about twenty feet behind the van and had climbed the tree to one of the lower branches from where she was making threatening growling sounds in her throat.

We exited quickly to more peaceful places!

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Close encounters of the animal kind - part 1

7/6/2016

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You never know what’s going to happen on a plein air outing…

Seated sketching one morning at the edge of a desert dry wash, all was silent until I suddenly heard the soft call of a quail. Then, about fifteen feet in front of me, unexpectedly, a mama quail walked across the wash, followed by a whole line of her little babies. I sat very quietly while they went, marveling at the little parade.

Beautiful!

On another day (very warm summer day in the desert), I was seated on a folding camp stool, sketching.  I was at the site of an old mine, sitting in an open flat area and absorbed in my work.

Then, out of the corner of my eye, I saw something moving on the ground—toward me.  It was a snake, headed to the only shade around—under my camp stool! Yes, I quickly decided to change my location and not accommodate Mr. Diamondback or any of his cousins!


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Then there was an early morning that I was enjoying in our home town’s nature park.  I was near a small stream that runs through this park, just looking at some painting possibilities, when out walked a bobcat from the underbrush about fifty or sixty feet in front of me.

It paid no attention to me, walked across an open area, crossed the stream, and disappeared into the brush on the opposite side.  Yes, I stood very quietly until it was gone.

Some joys of the landscape painter!

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    Some inspiration from bob...

    Bob wrote of his art journey over the many years of his career in his journals and various teaching materials. May his words and wisdom inspire you in your own art journey.


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