I think I have finally accomplished the last stroke of paint on this striking longhorn bull. I loved watching him as he ambled over to where I was standing. He stood for awhile so I could capture a few photos of him. I offered him some bovine pellets, but he just looked at me and walked on. Sheepishly, I watched him stroll off as if he owned the place, which I am sure he did. The rancher said that he had been a show bull before she and her husband bought him at auction in Iowa. Here he was now a Virginia bull with a new herd of cows.
I would have liked to put in the tall barren trees in the background, but when I sketched them in, they took away from this lovely bull, so I put in scrub trees, making the bull stand out more.
Now I am painting the mate to this one, which is a black, brown, freckled or I would probably say splotchy longhorn bull. I found him and his herd in the Plains, VA where I loved to walk in the pasture in the dead of winter. Of course, the bull didn’t know me, so I stayed very close to my SUV, and drove around the pasture when I saw an interesting gathering of longhorns. I just happened to capture this rugged looking bull simply munching hay and gazing out into the distance. That was enough for me to want to paint him.