A bristle-haired visitor with a head reportedly one-third of its overall body mass walked into Vanessa and Andre Stashinski’s plein air painting scene last week. All lived to tell about it.
Vanessa Stashinkski’s setup in what turned out to be boar country
“The Green Green Grass of Home,” by Vanessa Stashinkski, 2015, oil, 18 1/2 x 15 3/4 in. This is the painting Vanessa was working on when she and her husband were visited by a wild boar.
The Stashinskis were painting near their home in Israel when an adult wild boar emerged from the bushes. “Andre was painting, watching in another direction than me, and then he said, ‘Look who comes here,'” recounts Vanessa. “I turned my head and saw the boar coming. He was a big buddy, the size of an adult man. And he was cute — hairy, with very big head, tall legs, big ears. He came close, but didn’t show any interest in art. He went here and there, returned a couple of times. It was quite amazing. Should we come to the conclusion that our plein air workshops are getting popular? Even boars want to join.”
