This is surely the painting with the nicest fieldwork I ever did. For the first time in my career, I could manipulate the situation. I had the painting already in my head. The only thing missing was a model of the texture of the fur in the light that I wanted it. In a game farm in California, where they train animals for movies, I got the best opportunity I could imagine. There was a rocky place behind the farm and a docile female cougar, lying down exactly where we wanted her. Cougars mostly have three cubs, but can have up to six. I painted four, to get a nicer composition. After lots of sketches and tryouts, the paintings was born. Three months of work – the longest I ever did! - CB