"Blackberry Winter"
Oil - 24" x 30"
January 2006

We came out of the woods on a hike in North Carolina and found this very large blackberry patch in full bloom.  It's May and it will be some time before the berries ripen.

In my Appalachian boyhood we all knew that a great snake guarded all berry fields.  Here the great snake is a bit lazy and so we can just see him as he lies out soaking up the rays of the early morning sun.

Is that a rock at the end of the path?  The snake's head?
Is that a stone wall remnant beneath the shrub in the foreground?  
The snakes tail?  Perhaps but be careful and carry a big stick.