This painting is a reworked field sketch in oil on canvas. When I'm working in the field, I often paint on unstretched pieces of canvas attached to a clipboard. If I feel the quick sketch has potential, I'll work on it some more, until it's a completed study, and then have the canvas stretched. The final result may one day become the basis for a major painting.

In this instance the field sketch was painted from an open top safari vehicle during a game drive in the Serengeti Reserve in Tanzania, East Africa. A small pride of lions was lying hidden in the long savannah grass. The fast-setting afternoon sun was casting a warm glow on the small group. As we watched, they lazily went about their siesta. A young cub, craving attention from its mother, walked over and laid next to the adult lioness, snuggling its head against its mother's chest. As it did so, one ear folded back - its mother, looking proud, raised her head in acknowledgement.

This was the pose I wanted, and I quickly went to work to capture the scene before the fleeting moment had gone. Returning to the lodge that night, I was eager to put more work into the field sketch while the scene was still fresh in my mind. I have found that doing field sketches is more useful than taking photos. Each sketch becomes a learning process. One tends to absorb so much more about the subject from just one sketch than one would ever be able to obtain from even 100 photos. For this reason I tend to rely on my field sketches more than on my photos.

- John Seerey-Lester