Charcoal engraving on board

99 X 74 cm.

For Happily for me my artwork takes me to many wild places and it is in such places that one may meet an African Cape buffalo bull....and often accompanied by a herd numbering in the many hundreds. Much poached and hunted, the Cape buffalo bull is said to kill more hunters than any other African animal (and for some odd reason this fact does not displease me). The Cape buffalo is smart enough to at least deserve the great respect of humans and I for one do not blame them for killing many hunters.

This particular bull probably weighed around 900kg which was not much less than the little hire car I was driving when he stepped out of the tangled scrub and stood quietly blocking the track to my passage and clearly challenging me to do something about it. Cape Buffs have been described as giving you the 'You owe me money and I am here to collect' look.... and this is exactly the look he turned on me from his defiant stance 4 metres away. Realising I would be on a hiding to nothing if he perceived any challenge, I calmly switched off the car ignition and settled down to wait. He stood like a huge slab of rock.... not moving a muscle and never altering that unblinking stare.... for a full five minutes.           After that time had passed, he seemed to consider his honour well satisfied and without batting an eye he quietly stepped off the track into the bush on the opposite side to resume his interrupted journey.

A bold, massive critter like the Cape buffalo seems to deserve a bold and massive artistic approach. For me the medium of charcoal engraving suggested itself and I just went along for the journey. Often an artwork tells me what its approach needs to be and the design just makes itself present in my head.... fully formed and available. I used to cop a great     amount of flack in art school for this approach but if that's the way your art brain works I figured (like the bull buffalo) .... why fight it??