Observing Nature: Snail Rock Cattails

Jim often comments that, being in agriculture, you observe a lot in your surroundings over time.  His observations often spark connections to what he is painting.

Snail Rock Cattails refers to a particular place where seep water comes up and forms little creeks that flow through the river bottom. When Jim’s son Aaron was in elementary school, he liked to observe all the freshwater snails that would collect on the chunks of cement that had been put there to protect a culvert.  That spot eventually became a point of reference for the family.  They called it Snail Rock. “Cattails grew down along the ponds and when I created this piece I reminisced a lot about Snail Rock and that area of our farm,” says Jim.

He shares some memories of family time spent exploring the property. “When our children were growing up, they played around the creeks.  As a family, we’d take weekly hikes along the South Platte.” They saw many interesting things on these hikes over the years: eagles perched on branches, waiting for the opportunity to snag a meal; large schools of carp swimming near the riverbank during spawning season in the spring; ducks that would fly up from the water as they all passed by and wood ducks in the trees; weasels, raccoons and coyotes; mule deer and white tailed deer (including a newborn fawn); and once, something they thought might have been a mink, but could never say for sure, despite scouring every nature book they could find.

“Wild turkey would sometimes fly in our direction,” Jim says, recalling how impressive, and a little frightening, the large Toms could be. “It was amazing to see these birds fly and also how they move around quite freely and quickly on the ground.”

Even as adults, Jim’s children enjoy coming back and walking along the South Platte. “They’ve gotten to observe quite a few things in nature growing up here,” says Jim.