“Reconnaissance”
Pastel, pencil, and watercolor. 2018Picasso said that great artists don’t borrow….they just steal. Well, for all my late night walkings around Quail Roost Farm, I simply stole the originating photograph of this from the Facebook of one of the very pleasant ladies who come here each evening to care for their horses. All I had to do was to not paint the hands and feet of the women. I know nothing of horses….and it’s wonderful to see a whole new world. I doubt I would feel the same if I’d moved into a horde of NASCAR fans. Still? It’s beautiful….and do please listen to the song that I was reminded of while I watched the young woman tending to her horse. Go to:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9N2vZu1I0cg

We were traveling north to sing and play
For friends that we had never met
Been working hard and didn’t speak
The sky was grey and threatened wet
And I dreamed that I saw unicorns
Dreamed I saw them wild and white
Their sudden beauty lit the world
Like a star will light a winter’s night

Pure as love with manes of milk
They danced and pranced and cried aloud
Bright as rainbows round the stars
Their eyes were soft and sad and proud

And I wept for the wild and dirty world
To which this beauty now was lost
And cursed the hungry mind of man
That feeds the future at such cost
My head was bowed, my eyes were closed
When in my ears their voices rang
And these few words lodged deep inside
And in my very soul they sang

We never went away
You always knew that we were near
Remember how to look for us
You’ll see that we were always here

I raised my eyes to seek them out
The world was empty all around
The rain came tumbling from the sky
It drowned all dreams upon the ground
And when they asked me why I wept
Like one who for his dead love mourns
The only answer I could give
I dreamed that there were unicorns……
We never went away
You always knew that we were near
Remember how to look for us
You’ll see that we were always here”