BMancastar Fanning, Saturday, June 13, 1992
Jersey Cows, Roses,
Wildlife Inspire Artist
To Keep Sketching
LOU ANN GOOD
Lancaster Farming Staff
PEACH BOTTOM (Lancaster
Co.) “Once you had color,
you’ll never go back to black and
white.” Doris Hough said.
She is not referring to television
but to her “beloved Jersey cows.”
Doris and her husband George
purchased their first Jersey cow in
1959. At that time, the Houghs
lived on seven acres in New Jersey
and bought the cow for the family’s
milk supply.
“But we got quite caught up with
our Jersey cow and built up a herd
by buying calves,” Doris said.
After 15 years on a New Jersey
farm, the family moved to their
current farm in Peach Bottom.
“Why would anyone want to
move anywhere else when they
saw this area?” Doris asked.
In additional to the rolling hills
in a secluded area of Peach Bot
tom, Doris has added to the area’s
beauty by planting roses, nastur
niums, orchids, and perennials that
are ablaze with color.
“Years ago, my eight-year-old
son had wanted to plant a flower
garden for a 4-H project,” Doris
said. “That was the first time I
planted a flower and things sort of
mushroomed from there,” said
Doris who now specializes in
planting old varieties of roses. Her
whole front yard is a glorious mass
of fragrant roses. She has 64
varieties.
Inside, her home brims with
paintings and sketchings of flow
ers, fox hunts, quail, horses, and
outdoor scenes.
“I’m getting ready for an art
L
A popular piece of Doris’s
art work is this cheese box
featuring a Jersey cow. A
rub out method Is used with
burnt umber and turpentine.
on their former New Jersey farm.
A '4-
v s.
exhibit,” Dais said. Her impress
ive array of artwork will be on
exhibit at the Lancaster General
Hospital in October. She expects to
have 30 to 40 paintings ready by
then, but some of her favorites will
not appear in the exhibit because
she is only allowed to exhibit pic
tures to sell. Many of her paintings
are dear to her heart and she cannot
part with them.
“That is a picture of a fox hunt
that I went on in New Jersey,” she
said. “I want to get a horse and ride
again.” She points to another pic
ture, That’s a picture of the way our
New Jersey farm used to look.”
Her explanations for her many
paintings are punctuated with hear
ty laughs and exclamations of “Oh,
there is a story behind that one.”
Doris has taken art classes with
several individual artists. “Fortu
nately, I took classes with an
impressionist and he taught me to
get things down fast,” Doris said as
she flipped through stacks of
sketch bodes. “Pigs are neat to
sketch. And I like to attend dog
shows to find a lot of neat subjects.
Of course, there are plenty of
sketches of her beloved Jerseys and
also of horses. She plans to use
these sketches for oil paintings
and possibly bode illustrations
if she finds time.
“There’s just so many things I
love to do,” she said. “I’m just
interested in everything.”
Doris made a New Year’s resol
ution to paint everyday.
“I haven’t kept my resolution,
but, at least I’m painting more that
I used to paint,” she said.
One of the reasons that she is
painting more often is because she
has more time after a traumatic
year last year.
“Last year was a bad year for
me,” D«is said.
She was injured when she fell in
the barn. She required 32 stitches
and had four teeth knocked out in
addition to being trampled by the
heifer herd that spooked when they
heard her fall.
As if that injury was not bad
enough, Doris was hospitalized
with cancer, stung in the face by a
mosquito resulting in an affected
mosquito bite, and almost losing
her mother who suffered from a
massive ulcer.
But the very worse event was
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The easel Is. jays ready in Doris’s kitchen for her to take a few minutes to add
some touches to the canvases she Is preparing for an art show.
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losing her Jersey herd.
“I had a mastectomy because of
cancer but that didn’t bother me
nearly as much as losing the cows,”
Doris said.
Because her husband George is
80 years old, the cow herd was sold
last year.
“It was just too much work for
him to do two times a day,” Doris
said. Before her illness, she had
been helping with the milkinu.
calves, registration, and showed
locally.
“Since the cows are gone, it
overshadows everything. My
whole lifestyle has changed,” Dor-
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Many of Doris’s sketches reflect life on the farm.
Doris sketched these quail that are reproduced on note
cards.
is lamented. “They were all my
pets.”
“You better believe Jerseys are
very nice or I wouldn’t still be
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mourning losing the herd,” Doris
said.
“Jerseys are efficient. They give
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