Blue ball bull

I have been painting cows for ages and rarely do I see a bull. These days, the dairy herds have no use of a real, live bull and therefore, they are scarce as hens's teeth ( unless they are kept to fill the freezer! ). I am surrounded by dairy farms. Cows dominate the landscape.

Cows are social animals. The  dairy herd consists of many mothers, aunts , sisters, girlfriends and there are a few diva's spread out amongst them :Doe- eyed, large uddered, all curves and eyelashes.

Today I saw a great bull.

Bulls are hard eyed and powerful in a ratio of bulk to  brain that is very scary and not right. I am not sure they know the rule about not walking through the thin, white electric fence tape or not. They seemed to have missed the memo about fences and freaking people out by staring at them and making that dreadfully primitive bellowing sounds that sounds very, very angry.Very angry and frustrated and bored.Such a bad, bad combination .

He was alone in a paddock. It was quite a big paddock with just him in it.....and me, the electric tape and a camera.

I was going to paint him then and there and then I remembered I actually like myself ungored, so I took the photos and painted him at home.

I felt far more relaxed with that situation .

450 x 600mm
Acrylic