{"id":20210,"date":"2025-09-15T17:39:37","date_gmt":"2025-09-15T17:39:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.iamnow.today\/?page_id=20210"},"modified":"2025-11-23T18:50:05","modified_gmt":"2025-11-23T18:50:05","slug":"painting-backstories-5","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.iamnow.today\/?page_id=20210","title":{"rendered":"Painting Backstories: The headless hunter a.k.a. The unsuccessful foxhunt"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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The ‘Headless Hunter’ was initially the working title of the painting that is now named ‘the unsuccessful fox hunt’. I witnessed a foxhunt with horses and hounds in Pennsylvania and found it astonishing that this is still a thing… I am a conservationist and I really do not understand the need to hunt these beautiful creatures. I hope what they told me is true: that the fox is not caught 99% of the time and that those who do get caught usually are in poor health. More and more these events are also now done by dragging fox urine along a trail so that the dogs never find a real fox…<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I took a lot of photographs of the event in Pennsylvania but never really got a shot with all of the dogs in it. So this painting has been assembled from many photographs. Which also meant that I could be creative with the face of the man of the horse…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The original head was not to my satisfaction, and I asked my website visitors for suggestions of another head. Not much came of it, so I created a face that was to my own liking. A somewhat grumpy male, frustrated with not ‘catching’ a fox on that day. Which happened in answer to my passionate prayers. At some point during the hunt I did see a fox, but it looked like it was mocking the horses and the dogs and it was never caught. Yes, there WAS in fact a real fox involved on this day…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The only things that touched my heart that day were the escape of the fox(es) and the way these dogs are living. They were not kept as pets – they were bred with such a strong urge to hunt (they were hound dogs, in case you are wondering), that they would not do well in the confines of a household. Just the ones who did not possess that special urge were offered to individual dog owners. I did not like seeing all of these dogs confined to kennels, but maybe I am just too soft-hearted…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Click in the list below to select and view more backstories of my artworks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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