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"Cypress Camp"
Mixed media on panel, 12x16"
Price on request

These hunters, in search of wild pig and any other game that comes their way, have camped at the edge of a dry cypress forest. The sun is slowly setting and the men are settling in to have supper. One hunter sits with his Winchester across his lap; black bears have been coming round camp but they have not bagged one as yet.

The year is 1890, and it is somewhere in South Carolina. As the setting sun casts its shadow over the forest, the cypress knees take on an eerie almost sinister appearance. The gothic silence engulfs the forest; the hunters sit peering into the disappearing light. A distant nightjar breaks the silence as it flies high over the treetops. Their eyes start to play tricks; shapes and shadows seem to move. “Did I see a black bear?” No, I’m seeing things, it’s just a tree stump.”

I recently visited a site similar to this ,and after doing some location sketches, I visualized what it might have been like if a camp were nestled amongst the trees.