“Lake Brandt and the marina…” For several weeks I had heard of this location from friends, it was a place where they liked to come to picnic and relax on weekends, and take a break from our shared graduate art studies at UNC-Greensboro. It seems curious that I knew about the place, but only found it by accident one Saturday while driving around parts of Wayne County when looking at the landscape for new sources of subjects for painting. In fact, due to the density of trees and bushes I barely noticed the unexpected and unsought narrow entrance way or small welcome sign as I drove past. Only after I recognized the significance of the name on the sign, I turned the car around, returned to and drove down the winding, tree lined, gravel covered entrance road and a short while later a view of the lake opened before me. It was a place and a view that were to become familiar with frequent and regular visits over the coming year.
“Cow Boats.” When I was in my teens, I worked on various local dairy farms in our community to earn pocket money, especially during haying season in the summer. As a result, when I was working on various drawings and paintings from this scenic lake side location which included the rowboats, most especially the old, handmade, wooden boats, I began to observe what I felt were amusing commonalities between these boats and cows. Each is large, has a wide, ribbed, mid-section in comparison to a narrow angular tail section, and when the boats were floating in the marina and around near the docks, they resembled cows at rest or scattered about a pasture while grazing. As I watched novice boaters, it occurred to me that these boats, and cows in general, shared other similar attributes, such as, even though each may appear to be calm, placid, and docile they can be capable of sudden, unexpected, and startling movement, perhaps harmful, if interacted with and handled without due care, respect, and caution. More than once I observed boaters become dipped into the lake when getting into or out of the boat as the boat moved suddenly away from the dock, and there were times when someone would even get accidentally tipped out of the boat when out on the lake. As a result of this I amused myself in general by referring to these boats as “cow boats,” and as such used this description as the title for this painting.