Larry Zach Wildlife Art

"The painting November Frost - Whitetail has had a tremendous impact upon my career as a wildlife artist. It was my first limited edition print to sell out. As its price continued to rise on the secondary market, collectors began were drawn to successive painting releases. Other prints started selling out, and as the saying goes, "the rest is history."

The setting for November Frost - Whitetail is a cold, foggy November day in a mature deciduous forest. The forest floor is covered with a heavy frost. The actual scene exists only in my imagination, though many deer hunters have told me it looks exactly like the place they like to hunt. The background trees are red and white oak, both of which are important food sources for deer and other wildlife. The tree that has fallen across the top of the ridge is a red elm, possibly a victim of Dutch elm disease. The smaller trees include elm, ironwood and basswood. Buck rubs can be seen on one of the ironwood and one of the basswood trees. A small tree in the right location may be rubbed for a number of years until it either dies from the injuries or becomes too large to attract bucks. Deer hunters and serious students of the whitetail will recognize the bare spot where the non-typical buck is standing as a scrape. Bucks make these in the fall by pawing the ground with their front feet. They will often scent-check a scrape after approaching it and may urinate in it leaving their scent as a means of communication with other deer. Scrapes will almost invariably have a branch hanging above them within reach of deer. All types of deer seem to be attracted to the branch, but bucks in particular seem to find them very interesting. I have watched and frequently videotaped bucks, as they smell the branch, chew on it, and rub it with various parts of their head and antlers. As I worked on the painting over a period of several months it also evolved into somewhat of a life history study of whitetail. The time is about the middle of November and all antlered bucks are well into rutting activities and checking out all available does. The year and a half old buck on the right is well aware of his low position in the pecking order and is retreating to a safer distance. The large non-typical is working a licking branch over a scrape. A second, dominant buck is approaching from the left with ears laid back in an aggressive posture. As I worked on the painting I kept knocking him back with thin washes of foggy gray so that he would be the last deer noticed by the observer. Once he is noticed the mood of the painting instantly changes. The close proximity of two dominant bucks at this time of the year is a sure indicator that the scene will soon change."

- Larry