Also included with this lot: The Collector's Edition of "The Art of Robert Bateman" accompanied by a signed and numbered print "Edge of the woods - White Tail Deer", editioned 452/950

When the great white pines of Ontario were cut down and the land cleared, the stumps were pulled out of the edge of the fields and used as the first fences. Because they were solid, tangled and resinous, they lasted a long time. Some of them are two hundred years old and still going strong. In this fence some cedar rails have been added. A fence like this one on the edge of a typical farm woodlot gives good shelter for wildlife.

A deer is usually alert but in seclusion during the day. Here, one is seen gazing out over the open field where danger might threaten from the nearby farm or from the snowmobile whose track is just discernible. The glazed, nubby texture on top of the drifts in the foreground indicates there is a thick crust on the snow, strong enough to support the doe, so the elegant lines of her legs can be seen. The snow has drifted in behind the fence making curving shapes on which the abstract forms of the fence are reflected.