Cow Painting

Cow with a Green Earring, oil on cradled board, 11x14
based on photo by Susan Marks Dalton

My friend Susan posts great photos of their southern Virginia farm on FaceBook; I asked if I could use some for paintings--she agreed.  Okay, so her trees weren't violet and there wasn't a dead one in the foreground, and the grass wasn't golden, and there were four cows--not just one (this is based on the photo).  I liked this one who had delicately picked up her left front leg.  How do those little legs support so much cow?

 

Lots of paint on this one--it may never dry, and I'm not quite finished.

 

 

I don't know the breed of cow--red angus?--I like her color; the same color as my hair when I was younger.  AND my parents let my friend and me paint my bedroom lavender when we were about 10 years old.  We used lots of paint and signed our names behind the headboard.  Holy Cow--this is probably another self-portrait.

 

Tobacco and Tombstones in Turbeville VA

Tobacco and Tombstones in Turbeville VA, oil on cradled board, 11x14

Several years ago I drove west, to where the hills start rolling.  I turned north at Turbeville and pulled into a church parking lot to make a phone call--this is what I saw.  Luckily I had a camera and got a photo; I immediately knew the title.  Of course, in this just-finished painting I moved a few things and deleted others.  (And I just noticed that the bottom left of the photo is washed out--I'll need to re-do.) 

 

I had already taken several photos of the beautiful, threatening sky as I was driving.  I was the only car on the road so I simply aimed my camera up through the windshield and clicked.  Here's one: 

 

I am enjoying the oil paints; I need to learn to be less stingy in squeezing out the paint.

Cultivation

Cultivation, oil on canvas board, 16x20

                                In the future not too distant

                                I will definitely need an assistant.

 

                                In the back I'm growing one.

                                He needs water, he needs sun.

 

                                Arms are sprouting, one eye's opening.

                                He'll have a brain--that's what I'm ahoping.

 

                                When he's ripe among the rose mallow

                                 I'll probably need a large wheelbarrow.

 

I got new oil paints; it's been about thirty years since I've painted with regular oils--they're nice and buttery.  On an old primed canvas board I tried them out.  A head shape on the lower right; then what?  I thought of giving him a dog's short compact body and a long leash.  I thought of having a torso on a spring--maybe several.  Yellow rubber boots popped into my head.  Someone would be watering a planted torso; that would require a hose.  Wild rose mallows are blooming alongside my driveway so they were added along with the ivy.  Being from the South, a painting like this requires a story; I had to make one up so I made it into a poem.  (I might have watched too many Twilight Zones when I was young.)

 

There is a painting by de Chirico of a torso and yellow bananas; it's in THE ART BOOK.  I suspect that triggered the thought of yellow boots.  Today I googled de Cherico--interesting artist; I think he inspired surrealism.  I am also reminded now of Gaugin's leaves strewn around some of his portraits. 

 

A guest is arriving next weekend, an old friend who's a psychologist--I should probably keep this painting under wraps.