Artist and contributor to Leisure Painter, Amanda Cooper, plus a group of five other artists recently held an art show in Warehorne, in Kent, featuring work they completed on a trip to Romania.

Their guide on the trip was involved in a project to boost the fragile economy, buying and donating water buffalo to families with the abilities to raise such an animal. The aim of the project is to continue the water buffalo tradition in the Hartibaciu Valley, Transylvania, where these animals have been kept for centuries, but are now being replaced with cows. The project started in 2015 and so far six buffalos have been bought and placed with new families.

On returning to the UK, this intrepid group of artists decided to have a sale of their work in an attempt to raise the £650 necessary to buy a buffalo calf in support of this project. 25 of the 30 paintings exhibited sold over the weekend, easily reaching their target plus enough for the transportation.

George Butler, who is writing for The Artist in September, donated a print of Water Buffalo he painted whilst travelling in Transylvania in 2015. You can see Amanda with this print plus a watercolour by Anthony Stanton in the photograph below.