#294 Roseville Goats #294 Long Sleeve T-Shirt

While sitting at the Gold Country Fair in Auburn art show, CA, I did two demo paintings. This is the first one I painted with goats as the subject.

As part of the Roseville’s effort to reduce fire risk, the city has hired a private company to bring in a herd of goats to clear firebreaks between homes and open space. There is a web page for tracking the goat herds in town. I checked today and I can see there are three location for the goat herds and each herd is around 300 goats.

This watercolor was done on an Arches 12" X 16" block, cold press, 140 lb paper.

The goats can eat up to 5 percent of their body weight each day, making them effective and eco-friendly lawn mowers. On average, 100 goats can clear about 1 acre of growth per day.

My search to find my biological family was the genesis of my journey into the world of art. When I finally found my birth family, at the age of 40, I was plunged into a new and very different family. On one occasion while talking with the father I had never known, I discovered that my great uncle was the renowned watercolorist Dong Kingman. Fatefully discovering a cheap watercolor paint set, and intrigued by my relationship with Kingman, I wondered if I had inherited any of his talent. This lingering question spurred me into trying to paint. My first challenge was deciding what subjects I would paint. As a fan of Van Gogh, and knowing that he painted images from his day to day life: houses, fields, people working, I decided to do the...