Paths of Righteousness

He guides me in the paths of righteousness for His name's sake

South of Dillon, Montana stand two rocks which look very much like a large beaver and a smaller beaver. When the Lewis and Clark expedition reached this point in their search for passageway to the Pacific Ocean, they were very low on rations. Sacagawea, a young Shoshoni Indian, was their interpreter and guide. She had been captured by an enemy tribe at the age of ten and later sold as a slave to a French fur trader. Sacagawea was able to obtain food and horses for the expedition to continue because she recognized the Beaverhead Rock and knew her tribe was nearby. In Beaverhead County there is a controversy as to whether Sacagawea recognized these rocks which look like beavers or a large rock north of town, which does not look like a beaver. Somehow the rock north of town has been officially given the title of Beaverhead Rock, but by popular vote the ones to the south win . It is the ones to the south that I painted. I took a little artistic liberty and put a small stream in the foreground. There are 12 sheep getting in line as the shepherd has taken off down the path. They have had a cool drink from the stream and they dutifully, or maybe reluctantly, follow the shepherd as he leads them to places only he knows. There is one black sheep in the flock. As we were leaving Montana, driving south of the Beaverhead Rock we saw a most beautiful, magnificent Bald Eagle sitting on a telephone pole. This was his territory, so he had to go in the painting. He flies majestically, high overhead, his shadow casting the shape of a cross.