Doss, TX

"The scene...is a meadow near Doss, a quiet little village in the hill country. The light on this day filtered through a thin layer of clouds, the kind of gray day that precedes a November 'Norther'. It's so still you can hear the sheep grazing, and the faint voices of people and farm equipment drift across the valley. It's deer season and every now and then the muffled sound of a rifle shot comes from who knows how far away. In a day or so the cold front will sweep through and the bucks should be 'running', and the out of town hunters will have exciting stories to tell around the stove at the Doss feed store. 

 Because they know I'm an artist, the members of a Lutheran church in the painting asked me to gold leaf their old altarpiece. I promised I would as soon as I could get the leaf in from New York. I haven't yet told them yet it only takes a couple of days. 

Many small community church buildings still punctuate the hill country landscape, though their flocks have gone to better rewards or moved to bigger towns. Most were built in the mid to late 1800's as was this little one room Catholic church near Twin Sisters. Its current flock is mostly sheep, but it is well kept and hosts an All Saints Day celebration each year in November. The unusual thing about this little church is that it is built of lumber. Almost every country church in the hill country is built of a hand hewn lime stone. "

-Excerpt from Charles Beckendorf Texas