How to paint a cow?

I am often asked by aspiring bovine artist for help/tips/advice on painting a cow.

12"x12"   "White Face Calf on Blue"  Hereford

For me learning to paint realism isn't done by learning to paint a certain subject, it's done by learning to see. Of course you can see, but the challenge is seeing what's really there, the shapes and values, and once you learn to do that, you can paint anything, be it a cow, a portrait or a still life.

Cows are just my artistic focus, my signature subject, not the only thing I can paint, just what I have chosen to explore and expand on the many fabulous differences I find from one to the next, just like painting people, no two are alike, and each has it's own personality.

If you are learning to paint, the best advice I can give is don't worry about the subject, get good reference with a full range of value, learn to make interesting compositions, and practice the art of 'seeing' with emphasis on correct values and shapes.

One of my first teachers used to say something like this "If you can see, you can paint anything on the side of a barn with a bucket of manure and a broom."

She really made her point with that one!

Newest Painting by this cow artist, as seen on Facebook

This is a 36"x48" original oil calf painting.  A Hereford, or at least mostly I believe, that I photographed last spring at a local ranch in Ramona, California.  I love the peaceful scene.

The background colors in this piece are of special interest, usually I just decide when I am working on a painting what I'll do in the background, but in this case my client sent me the paint samples card, and I matched and incorporated the colors into the background for her.

Post by Denise Rich Art.

I am always super pleased when my collectors send me a photo of their painting in it's new home:

Debate on farming Industrial Hemp, is it high time?

I would love for everyone to read this article, "High Time For Hemp" by Jim Hightower, and leave a comment!

Just a few highlights:
" Industrial hemp won't make anyone high, but it certainly can make us happy, because it would deliver a new economic and environmental high for America."

Anyone else agree we could use this new economic and environmental high?

"While our nation is the world's biggest consumer of hemp products (from rope to shampoo, building materials to food), the mad masters of our insane "drug war" have lumped hemp and marijuana together as "Schedule 1 controlled substances" — making our Land of the Free the world's only industrialized country that bans farmers from growing this benign, profitable, job-creating and environmentally beneficial plant."

Meanwhile we send more money OUT of the country to the other countries that are allowed to farm this crop...

"Thus, the U.S.A. is consuming millions of dollars' worth of products made from hemp, that hemp comes from producers in other countries, because our farmers aren't allowed to grow it in the U.S.A. and reap the economic benefits here at home."'

Please read the entire article here.  And tell me if I am missing something, but this just sounds so logical.

If you agree, you can sign the petition here:

http://wh.gov/EFKN

Either way, please do leave a comment, I would love to know what you think, please be polite!

 (Black Angus Portrait 36"x36" by Denise Rich visit my cow paintings here > www.deniserichart.com)

Farmer's "Gotta Feed Everybody" by The Peterson Brothers rocks!

I'll admit my daughter likes the original song, which is the ONLY reason my old self is even familiar with it.
I love this well done parody film, "I''m Farming and I Grow It"  from the youtube channel of ThePetersonFarmBros.

Healthy farm boys showing what it takes to feed us, getting up with sunrise - they workout......side!  Something many kids, my own included, should realize.  Without the people who do this, there would be no grain with which to make the cheez-its to eat for breakfast when you get up at noon, so it's both a fun and educational video.

I love the part where he's dancing in the field early in the morning and a group of cows are just standing there staring at him....what's your favorite part?



There are, needless to say, some interesting comments at the youtube channel about this video, your comments are?

National Cow Appreciation Day?? How did I miss this?

 Well as you might guess, in my world EVERYDAY is cow appreciation day, however for the rest of the country, apparently it's July 15th ( or 9th or 14th, I found conflicting evidence on the internet, but July was constant!)

A blogger from L.A. has posted a collection of people hugging cows in honor of the celebration, some of them are guaranteed to make you smile!  This is my personal favorite of the bunch,

check the rest out here.

The fast food restaurant Chic-fil-a  jumps on the bandwagon, (or did they actually start it in the first place?) by rewarding people who dress up like a cow on July 9 with a free chicken sandwich meal.  I don't know about you, much as I admire cows I would rather throw down the $5.

Cow Tipping or, You Can't Keep a Good Cow Down

Leigh Rubin has gone and done it again, made me laugh with yet another bovine funny!
You can now engage in the interesting act of cow tipping, in the privacy of your own home yet.
Presenting the cow bop bag, tip him and he comes right back, complete with a full color booklet
with 30 of Leigh's cow related cartoons.  Love it!

About Leigh Rubin and Rubes Cartoons

Denise Rich, Bob Dylan, Farm Aid

Denise Rich is an artist, her birthdate is May 24.  Bob Dylan's birthdate is May 24, and he's an artist.

                                                             "Horse"  Bob Dylan 2010

Denise Rich is learning more about American Farmers every day.  Bob Dylan is one of the founders of Farm Aid, helping to support American Farmers.
Farm Aid started as an idea at the Live Aid Concert when Bob Dylan said on stage, "Wouldn't it be great if we did something for our own farmers right here in America?"

You can read all about Farm Aid, what they do and why on their website here.

"There are no more farmers...." Quote from an interview with The Barefoot Farmer

 If you read much about farming in America, you can't help but have Monsanto enter the picture.
Genetically altered seeds are the topic of much conversation.  I'm working to be as informed about the food I buy as possible, gathering information here and there on the internet, and found the viewpoint of Jeff Poppen, known as the Barefoot Farmer, to be quite thought provoking.

Barefoot, dreadlocks (including his beard) and of the opinion that "there are no more farmers" because dumping chemicals on the ground doesn't count as farming, Jeff has a lot of interesting viewpoints, as written in this interview on Portrait of a Farm blog, you can read the entire interview at the link below:

STEWARDS:: Red Boiling Springs, Tennessee: Jeff Poppen, Long ...: "We heard of Jeff Poppen as 'the Barefoot farmer' when we were in Asheville and were told that we should really try to meet this amazing ma..."

 Feel free to comment about your opinion of Jeff's ideas.

Van Ommering Dairy, one of my 'go to' dairy farms here in San Diego

Meet Ben and Jerry, two calves from our local Dairy Farm, owned by the Van Ommering family.
This is the farm where I first fell for cows, on a trip with my daughter's kindergarten class to see where
milk comes from and visit their yearly event not to be missed, Oma's Pumpkin Patch .
Not only do they have a yearly pumpkin patch, with a hay maze and cotton seed mountain, petting zoo,
but local San Diego county kids can have a farm birthday party.
.







I owe a lot to the Van Ommering family for putting up with my many visits to take reference for paintings.
Here's Dave Van Ommering taking time from his busy schedule to help me corral a few of the girls together for a special reference photo I needed to get.  Thanks again Dave!

What's cuter than a cow? A miniature cow!

Miniature cattle are becoming more popular than ever, a lot of ranches are downsizing as a means of
cutting costs.  I don't know if it's the wave of the future for beef farming, but I do know I want one for a pet!









 Mini Hereford Mom and Baby, a commissioned painting from a client photograph
of her Miniature Herefords.
The Herefords are 20"x30

99 percent of California Dairy Farms are Family Owned

 Some time has passed since I did the commissioned paintings for the California Milk Advisory Board.
The focus has gone from the immensely popular
"Happy Cows" to the source and roots of dairy farming, which is the California Dairy Farmers.  The name even changes from Real California Cheese to Real California Milk.  It's an interesting fact that when I tell people I'm from San Diego, California and my main focus for my paintings is cows, most look surprised as if I should live in Wisconsin to find cows to paint.  They are in for a real surprise because in fact, California is the top dairy state for milk production, followed in order by Wisconsin, Idaho, New York
and Pennsylvania.

Another interesting fact is that 99% of California Dairies are family owned.  You can meet the farmers and their families, meet the cows in a series of beautiful mini documentaries that show the families, the farms and make me want to live on one here.

(Artwork shown is graphite and charcoal study for one of the six paintings I did for the California Milk Advisory Board.)

An adopted Mustang, Bureau of Land Management Wild Horses and Burros vs.

 A friend of mine has horses and often rescues, rehabilitates and re-homes them.  This is a Mustang she adopted from one of the BLM Wild Horse and Burro events.  Her name is Sadie.
I understand there is controversy over the wild horses, and whether or not the Bureau of Land Management is handling it well, or if they should handle it at all.  I don't know enough about either side to take a stand, but am interested if you'd care to comment and share your view.