Close Encounter with a Fox

When I was a teenager we lived on a farm. I used to get up early to take care of the chores and if the they didn’t take too long I would go out to the woods and roam around looking for wild blackberries and blueberries because mom made the best berry pies.
We had been especially busy and I hadn’t gone to the woods for a while. One morning I heard a dog yapping at the back side of the farm. We all thought the neighbor in back had gotten a new dog and tied it up. The next day the dog was still yapping, and on the third day it was sounding pretty hoarse.
My chores were done and I decided to go visit our neighbor. I crossed the field and entered the woods. As I approached the fence line between our farms I saw a dog hanging by its tail in the barb wire fence. I unwound its tail and the poor thing was pretty weak from lack of food and water. I carried it home and put it in the corn crib, gave it some water and went to tell my dad so he would doctor the dog’s tail. Dad had just finished breakfast when I told him about the cute little red dog I found. Dad wanted to know why our coon dogs and beagles were setting up such a ruckus. I said they got all excited when I put the new dog in the corn crib.
When dad opened the door to the corn crib the dog started growling at him. Dad took one good look, closed the door and started laughing. He laughed so hard he couldn’t talk.
Of course I couldn’t figure out what was so funny.
Finally dad said, “FOX! That’s a FOX not a dog. How did you get it home without it biting you?”
I just carried it in my arms and talked to it and petted it. It never growled or tried to get away. The fox wouldn’t let anyone else get near it, so I held it while dad medicated its tail. Unfortunately it lost half of its tail. When my fox was healed and strong dad said I would have to let it go free. Of course I wanted to keep it, but it just wouldn’t be fair. So the next morning I took the fox out to the woods and said goodbye. He looked back at me a couple of times and was gone.
Every time I see a fox I remember carrying him home and my dad’s reaction. For a long time after that neighbors and my dad’s friends gave me the nickname Foxy, which I secretly liked.
Of course I just had to do a painting of a red fox, which I titled Fox in Prime Pelt. Before it sold I decided to have 300 limited edition lithograph prints made of it.

Choosing the 'Grand Slam' for My Subject Matter

Knowing as much as I can about an animal I want to paint is very helpful in being accurate and capturing their personality. To that end, research through books and documentary films have helped give me more information on habits, predators, environment and breeding.
Organizations such as The Fraternity for Desert Bighorn Sheep and The Wild Sheep Foundation have a wealth of information on all species of wild sheep.

I was most interested in what sheep hunters call the grand slam. Rocky Mountain Sheep, Desert Bighorn Sheep – a subspecies of Rocky Mountain Sheep, Dall Sheep and Stone Sheep – a subspecies of Dall Sheep – and this is where I concentrated my research.
Most people would be surprised to learn that the limited numbers of sheep is not due to hunting or natural predators, but to expanding civilization, livestock and domestic sheep.
Actually sportsmen’s conservation agencies have funded research and studies to save the Bighorn Sheep.
I hope my artwork will help draw people to the appreciation and importance of saving these wonderful creatures.

The Story of the Desert Big Horn Sheep

One of the most exciting awards I ever received was from the Pope and Young Big Game Awards Club for archers. My pastel painting of a Desert Bighorn Sheep won first place in their very first art show. I also won third place and honorable mention with two of my other paintings – a screech owl and a red fox.

I had said I would paint the first wild animal I saw when I moved to Nevada as an entry into the Pope and Young show. As I drove through the Hoover Dam, there on a cliff overlooking the highway was a very large Desert Bighorn Sheep, what a magnificent animal!
As soon as I got settled in my new home I started doing my research, I read every thing I could find on Desert Bighorn Sheep. The first things I found out was they are the Nevada state animal, how they migrated to this desert and adapted to this hot and dry climate. Then I joined the Nevada Wildlife Federation and the Fraternity for Desert Bighorn Sheep. The Fraternity is a hands-on group of people who build water guzzlers for the sheep and other wildlife in Southern Nevada.They also work with the Department of Wildlife and the BLM to trap some of the sheep and transplant them to other areas in the state to keep the bloodlines strong. Through the Fraternity I learned about the Wild Sheep Foundation.
After I won the award at the Pope and Young show I decided to have limited edition lithograph prints made of the Desert Bighorn painting. I put the original painting in the Wild Sheep Foundation auction at their convention in San Diego and it sold for $2,000. I donated half to the foundation. Very exciting out come, and I learned a lot about a most magnificent animal.