It’s amazing how the idea for a painting is born. The idea of painting a cow felt important. I’ve never really had the chance to get to know cows. I know cows sense things, somehow in the same way as people do. I hope one day I can be there to watch when the cows are let out onto their spring pastures. I expect to see joy and delight as the animals enjoy their freedom and nature.
I remember how as a little boy at my grandma’s I was ordered out from under everyone’s feet so I wouldn’t disturb the milking. Grandma had (if I remember right) two cows. Somewhere deep in my mind there’s still the taste of viili and creamy, delicious milk…
My aim was to capture the moment and the feeling of how an animal can look at a person. The subject of the painting worked out beautifully. The painting process itself, however, wasn’t quite so easy. As a base for the painting I picked an old painting of mine in which I had painted tulips. For one reason or another the tulip painting didn’t work, and it got a wonderful new life as a cow painting.
Here was the first version of the tulips. My original idea was to make the painting with as few brushstrokes as possible. But the painting didn’t feel like mine, so I decided to give it a bit more “oomph” and “vibe”.
Above is the same painting with “oomph” and “vibe”. This one already felt a little more like my own. Still, something in the painting was off, so I decided to sacrifice it on the altar of art. After the painting had dried for a few months, I sanded off the highest ridges of paint and started a new painting…
Cow
Here is the first version of the cow. I really took to the animal, and my first thought was to paint a green meadow. The red was my effect. I thought I would leave the red as a base and paint the different shades of the meadow on top. I didn’t like the blue sky at the top of the painting, so I decided to redo the sky.
At this point I realised that changing the sky into different shades didn’t make sense. The yellow sky didn’t work as it was. My original idea of a green meadow also went in the bin. Somehow the creature just stood out better against that red. I tried one more variation for the sky…
A rising or setting sun didn’t work in the murky “night” tone. Once again I had to go back to square one. The painting process can sometimes seem frustrating. In reality it wasn’t, because the subject of the painting itself worked. I just had to find colours that worked well together as a whole.
Here it is! Finally a finished work – now the sky works beautifully with the red meadow. And that’s how the tulips turned into a fine cow.