Thursday, August 25, 2011

First Calf at the Fair

The Dutchess County Fair in Rhinebeck, New York, had all the usual fun, but for me the highlight was seeing the first calf born at the fair.



This two minute video ends with my sketch-encounter with the calf named “Trouble.” He was born at 1:00 a.m. When we saw him stagger to his feet he was just nine hours old.


When I mentioned to the farmer that he didn’t seem too steady yet, he laughed and said, “If we let him loose right now, he could run faster than I could.”

14 comments:

  1. James,

    I love the Mom and calf painting - awe inspiring (or maybe I mean awwww inspiring, or both).

    xoxo

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  2. How cute !
    I tried to do the same with my baby horse but not the very first day. Maybe I should have, because with a couple of days later when I tried it, she was steady enough and so curious that she comes and chew my studybook !

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  3. Great clip...and sketch!

    The clip made me think (again) how great it would be to see a real-time clip of you making one of those sketches. I know I'm not alone in that! :^)

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  4. Cock a doodle doo! Great post Jim!
    Sorry to miss the fun.

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  5. Your whole ambitioned accumulated Dinotopia experience and resilience shows in this beautiful little sketch here.

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  6. Great sketch, as always. The video was nicely done, too.

    Might you post the drawing of the "Cartoon Guy"? How did the mutual sketching session go?

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  7. So adorable ! Have you heard of the cow Yvonne in Germany.

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  8. Hello James, I am quite new here in your universe, loved the clip and the sketch, 9 hours old and already perfect! and your posts are always interesting, - greetings from Paris where it rains today:), Andrea

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  9. Well, we have Andy Wyeth's Brown Swiss and now we have Jim Gurney's. Both wonderful. Thanks for the glimpses of the work in progress. It was great to see the wash and then the lines added. For someone who is dismissive of his watercolor skills, you do such fine work.

    Thanks also for the slices of the Duchess County Fair. It's obviously the real deal.

    Many years ago, my wife and I had a Jersey cow. The calves were deceptively agile. They would tremble and seem unable to stand, but had the moves of NFL running backs. We lacked the moves of NFL linebackers.

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  10. Just caught my misspelling; make that Dutchess.

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  11. Hey James,

    Beautiful drawing and love the colors! I hope you publish your sketchbooks someday. I would buy two copies.

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  12. Thanks everyone. Tyler, to see the sketch of the Cartoon Guy, just scroll down to the next post.

    By the way, they closed down the fair for both Saturday and Sunday because of Hurricane Irene.

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  13. Off question, what song is playing in the background of the video? It would be great for part of a play I'm designing backgrounds for.

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  14. Cody, That song is called "One-Eyed Maestro," by composer Kevin MacLeod of incompetech.com. If you go to his website, he has a lot of tracks that he offers copyright-free in exchange for link and credit. I recommend his work highly, especially for fun-spooky-outrageous tracks.

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