Out In The Country

Lived in the cabin, raised the pigs.

I grew up in the country (Mendocino coast), and after a lot of years of living in the Bay Area, have been living in the country again for 15 years. No longer on the coast and it has been both rewarding and challenging to live out in the bush.

Pros: A long driveway to the house, planted on both sides with all kinds of ornamentals, no neighbors within sight and beautiful views of the woods and gardens. Plenty of room for all the rescues and on-purpose animals to roam and be happy. Plenty of room to expand and create new garden areas. Nearby neighbors are (mostly) cool and several have become close friends. Trails all over the property so when I go for a walk it's always new because different plants are popping up or blooming all the time. There's always a parade of dogs and cats who love to string along on our walks.

Cons: Takes an hour to get to town. No services here. Horrible wildfires often so fire season is a very,very stressful time and it gets longer every year. Finding homeowner's insurance is a nightmare and quite expensive. No use calling 911 because there's no one to respond in time so deal with it or die. Most people here prefer that anyway so maybe that falls under "pro".

This was taken at the end of my driveway (then ruined by slapping a PS filter over it).


These 2 were taken along the driveway.



This is along one of the dog trails near the house.

Beautiful painting, Bill!
I grew up in the city, on asphalt....can you tell?

Love the pig Susan. No farm animals close by us any more, but we had a moose walk across our front lawn and neighbors across the road had a bear on their rear deck last year. But mostly we see wild turkeys and deer.

@Kathleen looks and sounds nice in the Mendocino (same as in the song, right?) coast country living. Some of the same pros and cons as Maine. Hate it when I need a $1 item and have to spend twice that in gas to go to town to pick it up.:-)

@Marlene nice asphalt pic. I can identify, as I also grew up in a small city in upstate New York and lived in cities (including Phoenix) for the first 56 years of my life. Both have advantages.

Thanks for sharing.

Bill Tomsa

http://billtomsa.blogspot.com/

@Jean Fall in the country....hard to beat! Very nice!



Bill Tomsa

http;//billtomsa.blogspot.com/

Orchard country in Southern California. Oak Glen

I love the country

The country is one my favorite muses,



The 3rd one was painted "en plein air".

David, you "Country Road" image looks very much like a road on the northern edge of Escalante. Is that the road in your painting?

Kathleen, no, that scene is part invention on my part. The painting started out as a scene in a town near here called "Mountain West", the "road" was actually some kind of driveway to a shed. I ended up not liking the shed and painted it out, modified the trees and continued the road into the background.

I've actually never been to Escalante. I was close last year when I spent a few days in Capital Reef and took a side trip to the town of Boulder but didn't have time to go all the way down to Escalante.

Your painting is really beautiful! I have a (poor) photo of that road in Escalante somewhere in these dusty folders. If I can find it in the next couple days I'll post it so you can see the similarity.

The country around Escalante in every direction is well worth the time and gas $ if you're ever out that way again. I slept behind the Mom & Pop store in Boulder a couple nights on my way in and out of Notom.

Thanks for the kind compliment Kathleen, what's your connection to Notom? I spent some time exploring in and around that area as well, talk about an out-of-the-way small town!

I just realized I was talking about the wrong painting before, I got confused, I was talking about "Country Morning". "Country Road" is based on a photo I took in Willard, Utah and is pretty much a straight up interpretation with only minor adjustments.

I usually take the week of Labor Day off for a trip, (a little less crowded since school as restarted by then), often to a National Park, maybe I'll go to Escalante this year.

By coincidence I'm off to a small, farming town right now to take a shot at turning out a decent plein air painting, (it rarely happens. lol).

I will keep this brief because I feel that I've already derailed the thread enough, but I go out to the triangle between Boulder, Notom and Bullfrog whenever I can because it's one of the few places I can roam freely in any direction without seeing other humans. Sometimes I see a trail of their dust from up high but that's usually just a rancher hauling cattle.

Country scenes, close to home...

I find it interesting how "country" translates or looks so differently on the plains and in the west/southwest when compared to the northeast and southeast.

And yet there is a lot in common. Quiet solitude is probably a bit more prevalent in the former siimply because of a smaller population.

Great looking images.


Bill Tomsa

http://billtomsa.blogspot.com/

Old barn and silo in upstate newyork.


Old farm road in Maryland near th Chesapeake.


Old farm road in eastern Pennsylvania. This was a photo that I played around with in Photoshop.


Matt Matekovic
www.photoarts.com

This was my "front yard" where I grew up. It was part of my grandfather's ranch back in the day and I spent some of my happiest years roaming around those cliffs and beaches. Very different from the kind of country where I live now but there are also a lot of commonalities. I guess having enough space to wander and solitude to dream may be the 2 most important aspects of living the country life.

These are some of my favorite "farm/country inspired" images!

My stomping ground.

Every road is " down a country road..." out where I live.

Spent the afternoon painting out in the country today, if the weather was just a touch warmer it would have been a perfect day.

Yes I enjoy the rural life.

I live in an area that has country, ocean, mountains, and trees everywhere. Even along the beaches. Country life is just minutes from city life.

These were inspired by scenes not too far from house.

I live in a rural part of South Jersey. This was taken a couple miles from my house.



And a couple more from areas pretty close to home as well.

We're roughly 4 miles from town, in a semi-rural area. The first two images were taken across the highway from where I live. The barn and the house in the images no longer exist, as both structures and the large trees immediately adjacent to them were leveled around the June 2014 time frame. Nothing but a large field used for planting crops now. I used to be able to see the farmhouse from the upstairs window here.



A couple of miles down the road from me:


All of these images were taken from my truck. There's no shoulder to pull over on on the narrow asphalt roads around here, just a ditch on either side.

Fantastic images everyone. Please keep them coming!

I was just reading another discussion by Richard Reeve titled "Is this the ultimate driving machine" and it occurred to me how we all have differing ideas about what the Ultimate Driving Machine is.

Coming back to this discussion I couldn't help but wonder if some farmers would consider this to be it.


Acrylic painting

Bill Tomsa

http://billtomsa.blogspot.com/

What's country if you don't have some barn images. Here are additional images from my area:



...and the barn I found the feed sack in:

I live in Heard County, Georgia. Let's just say that is is very rural. The population is just over 11,000. That is actually slightly less than it was around 1900. Franklin, the county seat, has a population around 975, and the only stop light in the county.
Farming has always played a huge roll in life here. My great grandfather raised cotton and my grandfather raised produce to sell in the farmer's markets in Atlanta. I can remember seeing small fields of cotton growing here when I was a kid. Now, cattle and chickens are the major agricultural resources here.





All of these photos were made within five miles of my home.

Sound like you live in heaven Clayton. Great photos everybody.

"All of these photos were made within five miles of my home."



The majority of mine are also, so photo-op outings are usually quick. Nice work, Clayton, and all the contributors to the thread.

I'm out in the country as well!

Our property:


Across the road:


Our country road:

.

In my part of the country nearly all roads are 'out in the country'. I love Montana for that reason.