Tuning up my soul.

Last night I poured a glass of Ardbeg and settled in to re-read A Rough Shooting Dog (ISBN: 0385479921), by Charles Fergus. It's a really nice story about the first year hunting with a springer spaniel.

I'm thinking about how the local WMA, McKee-Beshers, is going to look to me with a dog at my side. I'm reading some web posts about how to take full advantage the Potomac during the watefowl season.

It's a bit premature, but I'm getting excited about rediscovering my neighborhood.

goose pimples for early goose

Here's another oldie but goodie to get you all pumped up for early goose--or as we in the nuisance sniping trade like to call it, the September Nuisance Goose Season.

Frederic Remington, "Goose Shooting"

I'm wondering what goose sausage would taste like . . . .

Empty out those freezers, boys

Superior Shooter's laundry list of killables reminded me that it's that time again--you should all be cleaning out the freezer of all the old game flesh in order to make room for the new.

Which means that the barbecue grills should be working overtime. Serious sportsmen, of course, will have a full time grill attendant on staff . . . just like they did back in the 1950s, when this picture was published. It was truly the heyday of sportsmanship.

Remember: girls love grills.

Vicar, you free-riding parasite . . . .

heh heh. You heard me right: Mr. Mike's numbers don't lie. (nice wav file, btw, Mr. M) You sir, are a disgrace to grouse gabdom. Here all along I've thought you were doing your fair share, holding up your end of the bargain, etc. etc. You know, I believed that you were a real "Camp Man," as the Captain of Old T might put it.

But now I learn that you're nothing but a free-loading blood-sucking tic on our grousers' collective arse. And that goes for you too, Kleinpuppy. The gloves are off. I'm spitting mad, phtew, phtew.

So all you free-loading hosers get your fingers on the keyboard and start writing some comments AT THE VERY LEAST, sheesh fer frigginchrissakes. Cause it's lonely here in the blogger.com control booth, writing my heart out day in and day out, spilling my guts for the entire internet community, and for what? This is the thanks and gratitude that Mr. Mike and I get for our literary output? Almost enough to make me ashamed to be a grouser.

So snap out of it, fellas. Give us a sign that you're at least reading these things. Crickets chirping, whatever--a little bit of appreciation goes a long way.

Otherwise, I'm gonna start spamming your boxes with multiple copies of every post that makes it onto the blog--Cheney haiku included. And that's not a threat . . . that's a promise.

heh heh

I can barely stand it any longer . . .
I'll tell you where the bear shits in the woods.

Au contraire! Wispy haired pointy dogges are just perfect for late season on-ice duck work

With a spaniel the rule is drakes only
Which results in hen mallards that are lonely
But when the lake's froze
The rule is anything goes
You can even use that setter lying pronely.

Heroes of Sporting Art, Part One

One of my favorite sporting artists is A. B. Frost, who painted numerous hunting and fishing scenes over the course of his career. At right is his painting of The Huntsman, and many of his images depict bird hunting in one form or another.

Biographical info on Frost is surprisingly difficult to locate. Here is the biographical entry for A.B. Frost at Wikipedia:

Arthur Burdett Frost (January 17, 1851 - June 22, 1928) was an early American illustrator, graphic artist, and comics writer. He was also well known as a painter. Frost's work is well known for its dynamic representation of motion and sequence. Frost is considered one of the great illustrators in the "Golden Age of American Illustration". Frost illustrated over 90 books, and produced hundreds of paintings; in addition to his work in illustrations, he is renowned for his realistic hunting and shooting prints.

Frost was born on January 17, 1851, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the eldest of ten children; his father was a literature professor. He became a lithographer, and in 1874 he was asked by a friend to illustrate a book of humorous short stories, which was a commercial success, selling more than a million copies.

In 1876, Frost joined the art department at the publisher Harper & Brothers, where he worked with such well-known illustrators as Howard Pyle, E. W. Kemble, Frederic Remington, and C. S. Reinhart. While there, he learned a wide variety of techniques, from cartooning to photorealistic painting. Frost's color blindness may have helped his excellent use of grayscale. In 1877 and 1878, Frost went to London to study with some of the great cartoonists of the time. Later, he returned to Philadelphia and studied under painters Thomas Eakins and William Merritt Chase at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts.

Soon after returning, he published several stories formed of sequential drawings with captions, pioneering the form that would later develop into comic strips and comic books. In 1884, Frost published Stuff and Nonsense, an anthology of his previous works that advanced the concept of time-stop drawings and contained several other innovations.

From 1906 until May of 1914, Frost and his family lived in France, attracted by the impressionist artistic movement. Upon returning to the United States, he continued work as an illustrator and comics artist, mainly for Life magazine. Frost died on June 22, 1928.

I'm not sure I realized how influential Frost was in the development of early comics. I'll try to post more sporting images from Frost in the coming days.

Is this a Gordon or a Gordie?

While I sit here and waste half the day waiting for a tow truck, I'm perusing the sporting print dealers for next year's Christmas gifts. Check out the above print. Here is the dealer's info:

A.F. Tait. [Hunting dog] Boston: L. Prang & Co.(?), 1868. Chromolithograph. 9 3/4 x 12. Mounted on board as issued. Very good condition. In period frame.

Chromolithography was developed by publishers in the later part of the nineteenth century as a medium to produce inexpensive prints that filled the demand for attractive images to hang in homes of those that could not afford original paintings. Sporting art was quite quite popular at the time, so a number of chromolithographed prints were made with hunting and fishing scenes. Perhaps the greatest of the sporting artists of the period was A.F. Tait, who produced images for prints made both by Currier & Ives of New York and L. Prang of Boston. This is a lovely example of his work, perhaps issued by Prang. $550

Mike, if you collect enough soda cans, this print can be yours.

A bit of sporting humor

Cheeky: Fishing Vs. Doin' It!

I'm guessing Mike at least will enjoy the entire site . . . .