LUCY BOYDELL | The Chillingham Bull
Charcoal and Chalk
75 x 65 cms / 29½ x 25½ inches
Signed Lucy Boydell (lower right)
A gorgeous charcoal drawing capturing the raw power and quiet majesty of a Chillingham bull, one of Britain’s last remaining wild cattle. Rendered in rich, expressive strokes, this monochrome artwork highlights the bull’s iconic curved horns and muscular form, evoking a timeless connection to the ancient landscape of Northumberland.
There is a tendency, before one arrives, to imagine the wild bull of Chillingham as a creature of thunder, wary, distant. A beast to be glimpsed from afar, muscles taut with suspicion, eyes sharp with ancestral memory. And yet, standing there amidst the quiet Northumberland grasses, the truth revealed itself as something far more extraordinary.
The bull was immense, yes, with the weight and presence of centuries behind him. But he was also serene. His gaze was steady, his movement unhurried, his bearing filled with quiet confidence. He allowed a closeness that felt almost sacred, as if the space between creature and observer had simply dissolved.
Angus, the guardian of the herd, spoke of their legacy. These cattle, untouched by human hand for generations, know no fear because they have never been taught to fear. In that single observation lies something profound. The absence of violence has left room for peace, and in the bull’s composure there was not submission, but sovereignty.
The encounter became a kind of meditation, on perception, on projection, on how easily we shape the unknown in the image of our own anxieties. To witness the bull’s stillness was to understand something of ourselves. That awareness found its way into every line and shadow of the drawing that followed. And even now, in quieter moments, it returns. The lesson, offered without words, remains.
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