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Headin' For Shelter - Pheasants By Les C Kouba

Headin' for Shelter - Pheasants by Les C Kouba

"Headin' for Shelter was a very unusual painting. At the time I painted it, I didn't realize what a hit it would become."

"I knew I needed a pheasant painting to have a good cross section of limited edition prints. So, being a farm boy I got to thinking about those good old days when pheasants were really plentiful. I wanted a painting with that farm atmosphere in it."

"I really painted the first nostalgic pheasant painting as it was in my mind. Hell, I knew it was another painting; what didn't know was that it was that damn good. It turned out to be the A-bomb that started the real wildlife art boom in America. After the figures were all in and tallied, it generated in excess of a million dollars not bad for a farm kid from Hutchinson."

"I think the painting was successful because America was waiting and hungry for it. They were thirsty for a painting of those delightful pheasants, bringing to life those golden memories of how it used to be."

"It's hard to explain, but it's probably the most important painting I ever did in my life. I had no idea what I was starting when it was released. It was just like cell division. One day, two went out the door, the next day four, the next day eight-the numbers tripled. All of a sudden, I couldn't sign them as fast as the dudes were buying them."

"I figured out pretty quickly that I was going to run out of prints before too long. I kept asking myself, what is it that people liked? I gave the idea some thought and decided to paint another pheasant picture. The pheasants were heading for shelter I kept around the title. I figured it was natural to paint these same 13 birds at the same farm and that same and call it, In Shelter."

"As I was painting it, everything seemed to come in threes. I thought about it and figured it was a natural to have those same birds in the spring the year Leaving Shelter. There was the third one. The painting hit a nerve with the public. I not only started something that had never been done before. I used the same birds 13 pheasants and that cottontail that I carried throughout all three paintings. He was always hidden, a kind of Cracker Jack prize."

"It was so successful. The Series was another of Kouba's firsts."

"Headin' for Shelter, I wanted to create a painting with pheasants in it. Something that would remind the viewer of the good old days when pheasants were so plentiful. To get ideas, I got into my car and drove around the countryside. That's where I found the old hay rake and the corner post-typical things you would see as you walked along the roadside hunting pheasants. I made many sketches and took a lot of photos and then I built the typical upper Midwest farm and painted it." ~ Les Kouba

Heading For Shelter - Pheasants by Les C Kouba is available for sale as a limited edition of only 1,500 prints with a 17 x 24 1/4 image size priced at $___ unframed.

Canvas - Heading For Shelter is also available for sale as giclee canvas with a 18 x 28 image size priced at $300 unframed.

After Les passed away there was a giclee canvas print made of this image so these are not hand signed by Kouba but his name still appears in the lower left corner of the image.

Order yours today. We ship anywhere. Keywords: Shelter series thirteen 13 farms pheasants hunting upland game ring neck pheasants forever winter snow birds fences corners canvas art prints for sale.

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