Waiting Patiently

Every once in a while, I come across an image that I know I want to paint.
This was one of those.

It's such pretty group of cows and their calves patiently waiting.  
     Waiting for their farmer to come with feed...  
          Waiting for the sun to go down... 
               Waiting for the lady with the camera to go away...

I doubt anyone has ever used "patient" to describe me, but I do try to be. It's in my nature to move at a fast pace, to get the job done, to begin right now.  Since businesses, churches, and activities have been closed, however, life has moved at a slower pace. 

Maybe these pretty white cows can be a reminder.
     Slow down...  Take it easy...  Chew your cud and enjoy the wait...

Thanks to Sara Harley - Image Maker for letting me paint her photo. (And, yes, I know there was actually another little calf behind the big cow, but only his back end and tail showed! Maybe he was shy.) 

Original Oil Painting on 14"x 18" Wrapped Canvas.
Click Waiting Patiently if you'd like to purchase this painting. But... know that I'll be a little sad if you do since I look forward to having it hang on my own wall for a while. 😉

Pearl, the Pretty White Cow

On Christmas Day, we went on a cattle drive... Well, on a drive to look for some friendly cows that might like to pose for my camera.

We didn't have to drive long before the the paved roads became dirt roads. Things that you see on country roads are so interesting.  You just never know what will be around the next curve or over the next hill.

These girls were curious and friendly and came right over to the fence. They were just what I wanted, but I'm pretty sure I was was a big disappointment to them... standing there talking to them, taking their picture with out a bit of feed or hay to offer.  

This was the perfect little herd.  They weren't afraid to come close, and there were several different kinds and colors.  That tan one on the right...She may end up on a canvas some day, but she'll have to wait her turn. I loved this white one with the pink nose and pink ears. Let's call her Pearl.

Cows are really huge.  If you haven't hung around with any lately, you forget how really big they are.  I thought Pearl deserved to be on a great big canvas. 

I'm sure the mailman wondered what ridiculous thing I was up to... chickens running around my feet, wearing pajama pants and a heavy coat, holding up a big cow picture and smiling for the camera on the porch rail, running back and forth checking to see if I got the whole painting in the shot but not the pajama pants or chickens... and what's up with all that gray hair?? In my mind, it's brown with some gray sprinkled in.

Original Oil Painting on 20"x 20" Wrapped Canvas
Click  Pearl, the Pretty White Cow if you'd like to purchase this painting.

White Cow (a.k.a. Audrey)

I'm so glad to have finished this painting. I guess I've been in a dry spell... It's been a couple of months since I've painted, and I was a secretly a little bit worried that I'd forgotten how to do it.

I've got a long list of all the things that have kept me away from the easel,  but in the end... they're excuses.  I'm glad to be back at it.

I wanted to start back with something comfortable... a cow!  When I went to my "Possibilities" file, I came across these pretty white cows.  I'd snapped several photos of these lovely girls a few months ago.

I kind of went about this project in a backwards way.  I like to paint images that tell stories or that I have a connection to, but this was just a white cow. I thought surely I had a connection... maybe a beloved character from some children's book that I couldn't put my finger on??  So... here's the backwards part... I Googled "white cow characters." First to pop up was Milky White from the movie  Into the Woods... hmmm... not what I had in mind.  
Then I came across this little children's novel.  I hadn't heard of it...  It's new... It's being nominated for literary awards...
... The main character... a white cow that loves poetry... I'm in!
(I went in to the library to find it and was asked by the teenager, "Do you spell that "o..d..d..r..y..?" I'm not kidding, but that's another story.)

I LOVED Audry (Cow) SO MUCH!!!! I love children's books written in creative styles.  This one is written in first person oral accounts from all the different farm animals.  They each have their own unique voice and perspective.  I would love to run into Dan Bar-el  on a plane or get caught in an elevator with him and just say, "Good job! Loved your characters."  (It reminded me of Barbara Kingsolver's  Poisonwood Bible only for kids.) I'm thinking that my fourth graders will be hearing from Audrey and her farm friends and forest friends this year when we work on narratives and creating characters with voice. 

My favorite quote from the book came on one of the first few pages... had me hooked and rooting for Audrey. I wrote it down. "We Charolais, you will note, are all white - but creamy white would be more accurate.  We don't have those black splotches that you find on similar-looking white breeds.  Norma says the black splotches give her character and uniqueness.  She says it makes her interesting, implying that Charolais are not.  But Mother said that Charolais come into the world as blank canvases and our potential is unknown at first."
I LOVE that!!

So... my blank canvas, one stroke at a time, became my Audrey.
I'm going to enjoy her on my own wall while she waits for her permanent home.  

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Butterscotch the Cow

Do cows these days get names?

In books cows always have sweet appropriate cow names names... Flossy, Bessie, Elsie...

But, my dad called them #34 or #22 or #51... or whatever number was hanging from the yellow tags in their ears.  I think they only got a name if they were a problem, and then they got a Biblical name, not necessarily a compliment... I remember him referring to one cow as Jezebel because she was mean and hateful.  I remember another that had pink-eye so bad that Dad called him Blind Bartimaeus... I'm pretty sure that any cow that ended up with a name ended up at the sale barn pretty quickly.

There was one gentle "name" that I do remember.  As he'd walk through the cows to feed them or count them, he'd softly call, "Suk.. Suk.. Sukie... Suk.. Suk.. Sukie..."  I think it was meant to calm  and comfort them.

That kind of makes me want to change this little guy's name to Sukie. :)

(I'm trying to remember, but I think the cow in Little House in the Big Woods was named Sukie.  If it's a name good enough for Pa Ingalls, it must be a good cow name. Does anyone remember if that's was it?  The cow that Ma thought she was slapping on the winter night when it was actually a bear in the cow pen?)

Thanks to Vaughn Skinner for capturing this 

photograph and letting me put it on canvas.

Original Oil Painting on 12"x 12" Wrapped Canvas
[SOLD]

Moo!

What's your earliest memory?


I have a very early memory about being a farm girl.  I must have been only 4-5 years old when I had the job of guarding the opening.  My dad was trying to get the cows to go into a certain place in the barn and of course the cows wanted to go anywhere but there.  So, someone had to block any possible exits that the cows might find.  Guarding the opening meant that I had to stand in a certain spot so that the cows wouldn't try to escape from that particular route.  I'd never felt so little!  I stood there, all of 40 pounds, holding a stick in order to intimidate any 1,000 pound cow who came my way.  I have a distinct memory of crying, bawling in fact.  When my mom came over I sobbed that a big cow had stared at me.  (Now, I know that the phrase "'cow eyes" means big, soft, and filled with love.  Well, as a tiny little girl guarding the opening, cow eyes were huge and scary.)  My mother told me, "Of course, she's staring at you!  You're so pretty!"  (...awwww... How do mom's know just the right thing to say?)  With a new confidence I was able to wave my stick and guard that opening until the job was done.

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