F. Vettergreen, Jumpingpound Road looking north, 2011; gouache and charcoal on paper, ~ 14 x 17 in
Um, d’ya think there might be a bull in this field? says I, wondering why there are cows to the east of us and cows to the west, but none in the vicinity of the suspiciously sturdy fence we’re parked beside. My intrepid painting partner, the talented Verna Vogel, just glances at me.
There might be, she allows, swinging her leg over the top strand of barbed wire. But the view will be better from over there.
Um, says I, noticing a handsome and very, very large bovine form slowly approaching up the hill, d’ya think that might be the bull?
Here’s the view from outside the fence.
It took me a while to figure out why my charcoal pencil was sort of skidding, though my rapidly stiffening fingers should have clued me in: my gouache, which is a water-based paint similar to watercolour, was freezing on the paper. But we were too, and it was snowing, so I didn’t have to decide what to do about that, other than stop. We sat out a blizzard in the car, warming our hands around cups of potato-leek and cumin-scented lentil soup from our thermoses. Bliss.
Hardy souls you are!!! Hey, but did you know that IF a bull does charge at you, that if you stood there motionless, they can’t see you? Hard part is to summon up the nerves of steel required to stand perfectly still while a bull is charging at you. But, they don’t see very well-just moving objects.
That’s good to know. Though I think I’ll still be looking before I leap any barbed wire around here 🙂
I think I do not have nerves of steel…
And it WAS the bull coming over for a look, and so the intrepid Verna swung herself back over the wire and contented herself with the view from the safe side of the fence! Haha – good thing you are observant, Frances, or in my zeal for a view I would not have noticed that bull until it was upon me!
🙂
V
Well, in your defense, he did rather match the landscape. Lovely ochre, every ginormous gorgeous inch of him…
AND I really love this drawing/painting you made that day! One of my faves.