The Chaperone

The Second cow art print in a series

Sometimes, not very often but sometimes, a scene gets laid out ready to draw with a minimum of futzing. The lighting is good, the subject is just so and on its mark, there’s nothing that needs to be pulled out, and the composition is ready to go right out of the box.

The downside is that some people think that you drew it too ‘perfect’.

I was driving on the Trans-Canada highway in that 100 miles of emptiness east of Swift Current when I saw this happy scene.  I stood on the breaks, grabbed my camera, and introduced myself to the herd.

It was perfect; the angle of the light, the calves standing in a wary circle behind the grown up, the cow’s slightly stressed look…awesome!

Sometimes it can take hours to get what you’re after, but this time I was back on the road in less than 5 minutes!

Fast forward a few months to the art show where I unveiled this drawing for the first time, a wannabe art critic with all the charm of a Gorgon swanned over and dismissed it offhandedly as ‘too perfect, too symmetrical’.

I’ll admit that some of my earlier drawings may be a little … ah … ‘centered’, but this scene was drawn EXACTLY as I came across it.

I even drew the poop!

It turns out the critic was another artist who had entered the same show, and revenge was sweet, as The Chaperone won a Blue Ribbon at the show, despite her. 

Or do I mean ‘in spite of…?’  

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