I guess it's about time! So many people have seen my art work, admired, and purchased it! (www.Beckysart.com) I suppose I can call myself an accomplished and experienced artist since my work is showing up in antique stores and estate sales. In fact, I've already written instructions for my children when it's all in an estate---MY OWN!
The kinds of things people say to me is, "Your work tells a story. Have you also written it down?"
Well, no I haven't; not until now. Thus begins, Becky Lee's Art Blog. So, where do I begin? I'll start with my most recent painting. I have just completed a painting of mallard ducks, a drake and a hen. My inspiration is the number of ducks I have picked and "pillowed" in my life!
In 1961, I married my first husband, Hugh Lee. Hugh lived and worked all year long in anticipation of duck season. His work was in drainage construction, primarily maintaining dikes in the rice fields of the South Carolina low country.
These dikes were originally built to provide a controlled flow of water to the marshlands of South Carolina for the purpose of growing rice. Today they are maintained so that plantation owners can retain ownership of those rice fields. If tidal flow is allowed to go unchecked, ownership of the land reverts to the public domain.
Maintaining the rice fields in today's world creates rich and protected habitat for wildlife and waterfowl, paradise for hunters when the season begins. Prior to the hunt, the hunters go out and gather palmetto fans and grasses they use to prepare blinds. Supposedly from the blinds they will be able to see the ducks flying in, but the ducks won't see them.
Personally, I always thought it had to be primitive instinct that drove a man to leave a warm bed in the wee hours before dawn, hoping to charge out into freezing cold and high winds, perfect weather for duck hunting.
The cost of putting a duck from the hunt to the table is extremely expensive. It involves buying just the right kind of boat and motor, proper guns and shotgun shells, and a wardrobe of camouflage clothing complete with a float coat and boots with heavy woolen socks.
And don't forget the well bred hunting dogs, usually Labradors, who are great retrieves. Of course, the dogs are kept from year to year which means they have to be fed and go to the vet, but they earn their keep retrieving the ducks that fall from the sky, heaven knows where in the rivers and marsh. The dogs know how to find them.
There's the food and drink before the hunt. At our house, it was shrimp gravy with grits and I was the cook! Then after the hunt there was more food and drinks, often in front of a TV with the football games of the day, and the discussions of how the hunt went!
So, based on all that preparation, equipment and wardrobe, you go figure the cost of eating duck for Sunday dinner. Perhaps one has to include the priceless calculation of fun and games and socialization, the things that date back to primitive instinct and the beginnings of civilization.
My work can be seen at the Charleston Artist Guild Gallery, 160 East Bay Street in Charleston, S.C. and at the Sunset River Marketplace in Calabash. N.C. My website is www.Beckysart.com
The kinds of things people say to me is, "Your work tells a story. Have you also written it down?"
Well, no I haven't; not until now. Thus begins, Becky Lee's Art Blog. So, where do I begin? I'll start with my most recent painting. I have just completed a painting of mallard ducks, a drake and a hen. My inspiration is the number of ducks I have picked and "pillowed" in my life!
In 1961, I married my first husband, Hugh Lee. Hugh lived and worked all year long in anticipation of duck season. His work was in drainage construction, primarily maintaining dikes in the rice fields of the South Carolina low country.
These dikes were originally built to provide a controlled flow of water to the marshlands of South Carolina for the purpose of growing rice. Today they are maintained so that plantation owners can retain ownership of those rice fields. If tidal flow is allowed to go unchecked, ownership of the land reverts to the public domain.
Maintaining the rice fields in today's world creates rich and protected habitat for wildlife and waterfowl, paradise for hunters when the season begins. Prior to the hunt, the hunters go out and gather palmetto fans and grasses they use to prepare blinds. Supposedly from the blinds they will be able to see the ducks flying in, but the ducks won't see them.
Personally, I always thought it had to be primitive instinct that drove a man to leave a warm bed in the wee hours before dawn, hoping to charge out into freezing cold and high winds, perfect weather for duck hunting.
The cost of putting a duck from the hunt to the table is extremely expensive. It involves buying just the right kind of boat and motor, proper guns and shotgun shells, and a wardrobe of camouflage clothing complete with a float coat and boots with heavy woolen socks.
And don't forget the well bred hunting dogs, usually Labradors, who are great retrieves. Of course, the dogs are kept from year to year which means they have to be fed and go to the vet, but they earn their keep retrieving the ducks that fall from the sky, heaven knows where in the rivers and marsh. The dogs know how to find them.
There's the food and drink before the hunt. At our house, it was shrimp gravy with grits and I was the cook! Then after the hunt there was more food and drinks, often in front of a TV with the football games of the day, and the discussions of how the hunt went!
So, based on all that preparation, equipment and wardrobe, you go figure the cost of eating duck for Sunday dinner. Perhaps one has to include the priceless calculation of fun and games and socialization, the things that date back to primitive instinct and the beginnings of civilization.
My work can be seen at the Charleston Artist Guild Gallery, 160 East Bay Street in Charleston, S.C. and at the Sunset River Marketplace in Calabash. N.C. My website is www.Beckysart.com
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