Jack Hayward

"Yes, everybody called him Jack. I believe his actual name was John though. I bid on one of his paintings at auction once. It was one he had done of the terrain west of Alva with Hereford cattle in it. We raise Angus here on our farm, but I remember Jack painting such beautiful pictures of the red cattle. The land around Alva is not lush and green, as it is here in the Tallgrass.

But it has a certain rugged beauty, which is homegrown into each soul reared within it's realm, I feel. It is a wild and free feeling, and my heart sighs each time I return for a visit. I lived near Tulsa for a time, in the wooded lands. It was lovely, but how I did yearn for wide open skies and to see a storm cloud rising 20 miles distant. My 'Eastern' bred husband (born in Pawnee) just fails to see the loveliness of the place. I recall that he did like to roam the hills of the Hyde Ranch with me, as I found my heart's contentment there. He was employed with Dale and Orville Ritter for a time, who worked the Hyde Ranch north of Freedom. I figure that place to be fairly near to where the Cummins set up, back in the opening of the Territory. Jack Hayward could capture that 'something' in his paintings which endeared his work to me. It's good to know that you studied under Jack, too. It's a small world after all." -- Linda M. View/Write Comments (count 0)   |   Receive updates (0 subscribers)  |   Unsubscribe

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