Painting Farm Animals

Got Cow Paintings?

Have you ever had the urge to moo at a cow? I wonder what they'd try to do in imitation of us? "Yakkety-yak!?" Cow

was the first word my younger brother Kenny spoke as a baby. Growing up on a Pennsylvania dairy farm, speaking the word cow as your first word, made a lot of sense. My first word was dog, but I was more into eating and drinking all things associated with dairy, then wanting it as a lifestyle. I knew that I didn't have what it took to be a farmer. Because I have an intense love of chocolate chip ice cream and I've always loved animals, I'm a huge fan of cows! In fact, recently, I felt compelled to portrait paint a Brown Swiss named Penelope and to paint a Holstein cow in a pasture landscape scene. Penelope belongs to my cousins Bill and Jim Reichert, and she lives on their dairy farm in Portersville, Pennsylvania. The second painting is a composite of more cow photos I had also taken on the Reichert Dairy Farm. Most of their milk cows are classic Holsteins, the black and white ones known for their huge milk production.

In reference to the art side of all of this, I painted my cows with soft pastels on sanded board. They measure approximately 11x14 in size. Hope you find my art moo--ving! And, I hope you think of the cow, the next time you're swigging down that cold milk for breakfast.