Study for “Anna Feeding a Doe” by Jacqueline Perry. Marker, pen, tape on photocopy 6 1/2″ x 10″. My father took a picture of my grandmother, Anna Hazelton, about 1964 in Greentown, Pennsylvania. I added clouds from cloud studies that I made in Butler, PA this June.
My grandmother, Anna London, made many paintings in her life. She liked to paint local landscapes or copy scenes from cards or calendars. If she sold a painting at the county fair for more than $75, she would call it her “bread and butter painting”. She died a few years ago, and I miss her.
The image above, comes from a favorite picture that I have of “Grandma”. I’ve started work on a linocut from this study. I will post the print when I complete it.
Anna and her father, John Haag, were plugged into nature. John followed bees to the hive, encountered black bears and had also tamed a doe. They each had a spiritual connection with woods and field and wild life–something that went beyond the ordinary for them. Nature amazed them.
Growing up, who shared the awe of nature with you?
tobeamazed 
I was so fortunate that several people in my life helped me see the awe in nature. My Dad would take me outside late at night if I couldn’t sleep, and let me lie in a chaise lounge chair and point out the constellations and tell me about the moon and planets. Mom would tell us the names of all the little wildflowers, birds, bugs, types of butterflies and how the miracle of change from caterpillar to beautiful flying creature happened. My aunt would take us for long country rides after church on Sundays and stop to examine or move a turtle in the middle of a gravel road, or stop to pick some teasel, cattails, or wheat for a dried flower arrangement. Dad taught me to hunt (rabbits, quail, pheasant) and fish (you cleaned and cooked what you got for food) and along the way taught respect for the water and the speed with which the weather could turn treacherous, the power of God coming through both.
What a gift these people gave you, Linda. Thanks for sharing these memories. They are very visual descriptions, I can picture them.
JACKIE…AS A FARMER, WE’RE CLEARLY CONNECTED TO THE LAND AND TO NATURE. OUR CONNECTION IS DIFFERENT IN THAT THE SMELL OF THE MOIST EARTH, OR THE GROWING CROP IS THE MOST SENSORY EXPERIENCE I’M FAMILIAR WITH IN NATURE. THAT’S WHY I APPRECIATE THE ADVENTURE YOU’RE TAKING ME ON DURING YOUR SABATTICAL. I WOULDN’T OTHERWISE BE ABLE TO SEE ANOTHER PERSPECTIVE. WE ARE ABLE TO MANAGE A GREAT DEAL BUT WE’RE UNABLE TO MANAGE THE WONDER AND SOMETIMES DESTRUCTIVENESS OF NATURE. I HOPE IT’S ALWAYS THAT WAY.
Thanks, Jeff, for your phrase “sensory experience” in talking about a farmer’s experience of nature, and your comment about farmers managing a great deal of it, but that there are limits to our control. The drought this summer is a humbling reminder.
I came from a family of nature lovers. My parents were gardeners and travelers. I was pit to work in the gardens and was hauled all over these United States on annual family vacations. We observed nature. We marveled at it. We tinkered with it. Nature is one of God’s best gifts to us.
My years as “yard slave” taught me many things. Nature is constantly amazing you if you engage it and stay observant. You see and learn more if you are quiet. Hard work can be very satisfying. Hard work improves your physical and mental condition. God is at work in nature in obvious ways. Natural things are constantly changing. It never stands still.
There is nothing so calming to me as immersing myself in nature. A walk in the woods. Waves on a beach. A glorous star filled sky.
People who have not found Nature must be totally blind — with their eyes wide open.
Well put, Dan, thanks. (LIKE your term ‘yard slave’)
Hi great reading your bllog
Thanks!