"Out
of Nowhere"
Oil on panel, 24x36"
Price on request
The chilled air was still and the forest
adjacent to the creek was silent. Not even the Whiskey
Jacks could be heard. It was eerie as mist rose from the
water ,and the morning sun struggled to warm the Alaskan scene.
Suddenly the peace was broken. A single shot rang out and echoed
through the silence. Birds of the forest sprang to life and zoomed
in all directions parting the mist as they did so.
The shot had come from an old cabin buried
deep in the woods and had been heard by no one, other than the
local wildlife. The year was 1915, and in this remote part of
the world the nearest camp, inhabited by prospectors, was some
thirty miles away. So it was some weeks, perhaps months, before
anyone discovered the decaying corpse in the cabin. The deceased
man was found with a colt revolver lying on his chest, his left
hand clutching the gun, which contained five cartridges and one
empty shell under the hammer. The man had obviously committed
suicide.
It was also very evident that he had
been badly mauled by a brown bear, suffering terrible injuries
as a result. Unable to get help in such a remote location, he
probably succumbed to the agony and decided to end it all. It
was thought that he might have been fly fishing, when a bear
had attacked him without provocation. Brown bears have been known
to charge humans for no apparent reason and can come out
of nowhere. They have also been known to pursue a fishermans
catch. The precise details of this attack are for speculation
only.
In my painting I have depicted how it
might have looked in those horrifying moments as the bear charged
from the cover of the forest, at fifty feet per second, to take
down the surprised fisherman. It may have been hungry and only
after his catch, but agitated by the man's presence, chose to
maul him. We do know that, desperate and badly injured, he somehow
made his way back to the cabin. The mans rifle, with a
full magazine was found in the corner of his cabin; so he never
got to use it, which probably means the bear did not pursue him
after getting the fish and the mauling. They could find no papers
on the mans decomposed body, and he was eventually cremated
along with the cabin. After being burnt to the ground, it became
little more than a memory and a shadow on the grass.
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