Cape Buffalo:

Jan has a particular affinity for Cape Buffalo. She loves that each one is an individual. Different horn shape, different hair, different attitude. Here is a photo taken by her friend Sue in Kenya in June when they were in a huge herd of several hundred buffalo. They enjoyed just shutting down the vehicle and observing and listening.

Jan liked the idea of this painting of a strongly lit Cape Buffalo against the dark green of an acacia bush. She wanted the golden light to "glow" through the painting, so she started by laying down a warm yellow ochre wash which she smoothed out and blended with a foam rubber sponge.

The drawing done to size on tracing paper is ready to transfer to the painting surface as needed.

Jan is creating the look of the thorny acacia branches in the bush. You can see she is doing this by turning a "rake" brush sideways. The rake is a flat brush that has every few hairs shorter than the ones before it. Jan has found it does a great job creating the look this type of foliage.

In this photo Jan has pretty much finished the back bush and one of the smaller "bushes" has been put in the middle foreground. Jan has also now laid in the cape buffalo in brown/purple paint. The drawing has also been transferred with the off white artist transfer paper.

Jan has done the eyes - which she likes to do first to create a "bond" with her subject. As most of you know, Jan likes to create organic texture. Buffalo skin is very rough and furrowed and Jan has chosen to use her technique of applying off white paint to an area, and while it is still wet crumpling cellophane into it to create texture.

Jan has started to continue work on the body of the buffalo. Some buffalo have more hair than others. Here Jan has started her technique of "drawing" hair with off white paint using a splayed out old brush. Notice she has started the horns as well, using her cellophane technique to create the texture of the boss (the area where the horns meet).

Jan finished the "drawing" of the hair coat, and now the unifying brown wash has been applied in preparation for the final detail.

The detail has now been done on the horns and face, paying special attention to the light coming strongly from behind and to the left.

This is a photo of the closeup of the grass in progress. Most people feel Jan is very detailed - but - she tries to give the impression of detail without actually painting every hair and every blade of grass. You can see these are actually fairly "loose" brush strokes.

The finished painting "BULL IN THE BUSH" 18 x 24". Original for sale - inquire about giclées.