The late Sam Foster of Greer SC

 
Pencil Drawing

Grandfather's Barn

Pencil Drawing 

I sketched this scene while sitting (in the late 1970s or early 1980s) in the field below my Grandfather Carl Crain's barn located in the Mountain View area of upper Greenville County, South Carolina. I spent happy childhood times around this barn in the 1950s, watching my grandfather milk a cow or "helping" him feed a mule. Once, his mule kicked high as she went into her stall. "Got to cut down on her corn," my grandfather said. Carl Crain died in 1968. He was a wonderful grandfather.

(Double-click on artwork to see an enlarged view.)

"As a Father..."

Pencil Drawing

"As a father has compassion on his children, so the Lord has compassion on those who fear (respect) him; for he knows how we are formed; he remembers that we are dust" (Psalm 103:13-14).

Mule

 
Colored Pencils on Gray Paper

Horse of a Different Coloration

 
Colored Pencils on Gray Paper

A Pennsylvania Farm

Pencil Drawing
 
I drew this farm as I sat in the backyard of a house Rose and Frank Magnone's used to own in Washington, Pennsylvania. My wife Carol and I were visiting her wonderful Aunt Rose and Uncle Frank.

Pa's Barn and Paris Mountain

Watercolor

I painted this scene years ago and spent many peaceful times in the hallway of this barn that affords a view of Paris Mountain near Greenville, S.C. This barn is located in the northern section of Greenville County, S.C., in the Mountain View Community.

My grandfather, Carl Clyde Crain, owned this barn when I was a boy. His father, "Ben," owned it before my grandfather, whom I called "Pa," bought it. I've watched Pa milk cows in this hallway. One evening as he "put up" one of his mules in a barn stall for the night, the mule kicked as he entered his stall. I heard Pa say, "I've got to cut down on his corn."

Pa and Ma sold milk and butter to a few folk in Greenville, S.C., and I loved to ride with them on Saturday mornings on their "milk and butter route." Their handful of "city folk" customers liked "real milk and butter, right from the cow." Ma made a little money to spend at Woolworth's or at a bakery located on Greenville's north side. At that bakery, which featured "Bost" products, one could buy (to borrow a phrase from songwriter Johnny Cash) "those day-old cakes mighty cheaply."