In 2016 I received a commission from a New Forest Keeper for an oil painting of rutting fallow bucks. Getting up very early one morning to try and film scenes of the annual fallow rut in his quiet corner of the forest with his video recorder, he was especially thrilled to have successfully captured the scene with a rare white buck. He asked for the painting to be set in the exact spot where he had witnessed the rut taking place. I took a selection of stills from the videos and put together an autumn scene incorporating most of the large herd, including the many males that had gathered there.…