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Cows from Gateway Workshop, Completed
20x24, collage on panel
Here are the completed cows, I worked on them last night until about 1am, as I was determined to finish them! I struggled a little bit with the white fluffy fur on the top of the heads and down the nose. I feel like I never have just the right white to work with, many of my papers look white, but when you glue them down and look at them, they are more of an off white or a "warm white" rather than bright clean white as cow fur and clouds would require.
I ended up toning down the sky a bit and eliminating some of the busy clouds, there was too much going on with the patterns and text in the heads of the cows, I needed a restful space where the busy heads meet the sky.
The collage bits add life to your cows, Elizabeth. I liked the underpainting and might have left it as is but with the collage they come alive in a way that the underpainting didn't. Now I see why you tell your students not to consider the underpainting to be preciouse.
ReplyDeleteGreat job. Love the muzzles, which come right out of the painting toward the viewer. You captured the texture and the cow seems alive. This shows up well in a photograph, I can imagine how much more powerful the originals must be. And you did a great job on the fluffy plumes. One might think you grew up with cows, you've captured them so perfectly.
ReplyDeleteWell, I am from rural Western Mass, we had a lot of cows there, but I never spent a lot of time with them. :) The nose really comes forward because I used a very textured hand made paper with lots of tidbits and a small amount of glitter in it, it is quite lumpy when glued down.
ReplyDeleteThe cows are wonderful!
ReplyDeleteAlthough I thought much of the underpainting, Jo Reimer is right in how the collaged piece comes alive!
J.