The Cow

This is The Cow. The Cow is a painting I have been working on for the past two weeks. This is her first appearance on the blog.

In this painting, I am trying to emulate the style of an artist named Marie Laurencin. Marie layers on white paint to wash out most of the detailing of her subject, while working in splashes of color through out the piece. What remains are simple and elegant figures that entertain the eye with the lacing of white in contrast to vibrant color.

I started my project by layering brown and gold paint over the entire canvas. Behind the brown and gold, there is another painting. You can still see faint traces of the previous painting in the left bottom corner where the color is a bit darker. There was once an ocean there. Now it will be a field.

After the background color was done, I needed to pick a subject. So, I did what any artist would do and I picked up a copy of the Pottery Barn catalog. I wanted to see what was currently being hung on the trendy walls of America. Bright yellow canvases and black and white pictures of exotic animals seemed to be the rage. I could get behind the idea of hanging pictures of animals on my wall. I like animals. But exotic animals? Where's the connection between me and an elephant?

So I thought about animals I was connected to, and I remembered that Dave has had a picture of cows on the background of his computer for a few months now. I was connected to them! They were a regular part of my life. Anytime I want to listen to music from Dave's computer, I am greeted by these cows. So, I picked one and drew it onto the canvas. On the right side of the painting you can still see the sharpie marks for the shoulder blade and the rib cage.

The painting is far from done. While color has been blocked in and the style chosen, it still has many phases to go through. I hope to post the painting in its various phases and to tell you more about the subject as it progresses.