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Big Strike1997 Oil on linen 50.0" x 72.0" Private collection My daddy's family, the Bacons, love to fish. My uncle Rube Bacon had a sporting goods store in Shreveport, Louisiana, named Bacon & Edwards. I loved that store. It had everything in it - a stuffed bear, deer heads, stuffed marlins and swordfish, snake skins, fishing poles and lures, guns, and a wonderful old machine that made freshly roasted peanuts daily. I enjoyed the fishing out at Lake Bistaneau if someone would put the worms on my hook. A tomboy I was not. Uncle Rube and Aunt Bennie lived not too far from the store, and I would often stay with her while everyone fished. She was the first real artist I knew. Her pastels of magnolias amazed me. She also helped paint the dioramas at the Louisiana State Exhibit Building, and we spent many hours there. She was soft spoken and so sweet that I wanted to be just like her, so that meant being an artist. My parents bought an easel and some oil paints, and my Mom made me an artist's smock and got me a little tam to wear. Alas, I had no clue how to use the paints and mostly just pretended to be an artist. But the seeds were sown. My cousin, Michael Bacon, still runs Bacon's in Shreveport. He loaned me most of the paraphernalia for this painting. The striking trout in the background is from a Winslow Homer watercolor. The Dryfly Oil now has a pug dog on the label - our family pet, Sita the Wonder Dog. Hidden in the shadows on a box is a stamp for Bacon & Edwards "The Sportsman's Paradise". But really this work is about my father, Lon Bacon and the time we spent sitting on the bank of creeks, lakes or "tanks" - fishing, eating pork rinds and pig's feet, and just hanging out together. |