On friday the 7th december I packed all my painting utensils to go and paint a bison herd I heard of, which was located in the Jura mountains.
After a journey with bus, train, cablecar and final stretch with a car I arrived at the “Ferme des Bison”. The snow was knee deep and the farmer told me that more snow was coming….anyway I fetched my backpag and camping chair and headed towards the bison pasture.
Because of the wind the lighting situation changed quite quickly every few minutes.
During a windy and foggy section of the day the herd came to the feeding area and a young cow came pretty close to the fence.
I was fascinated by all the colours she had in the fur even with the flat light. There where shades of light ocker over black to white and blue.
The fur around the nostrils was coated thickly with snow and ice. The rest of the herd stayed in the fog and where just big scruffy locking shadows.
As soon as the wind picked up the sun came out and the herd moved into the cover of the trees. Then I realised that my paint was starting to freeze up
so I sketched as quickly as possible the landscape in sunlight it was particularly difficult to get the colour of the snow with the sunlight on right.
I was not even finished with painting when my acrylic was just clumps of ice, so wandered past surprised looking crosscountry skiers back to the car.
