I spent all day yesterday gardening in the great outdoors, so today as it poured outside, I brought some of the memories of working outdoors on the farm to my blank page. I’m still struggling with markers so I figured the more I work with them the better I’ll get.
I had some photos that I’d taken a year ago as the fields yellowed and vibrant color dressed the trees. Then there was a morning where frost blued the remaining green grasses and sparkled on the heads of brown weed stalks at the roadsides. I had to capture that too. Those two photos were my references for today’s marker paintings.
The cattle in the photo were mostly hidden by the tall roadside weeds so I brought them more to the forefront. Looking up hereford faces in my reference books I wondered what famous works had been done of cattle. I came upon a couple of names, Winslow Homer and Julien Dupre. Both have works that I could look at for hours. Check out the Julien Dupre paintings at this sight. Many are full of movement, and are endearing to anyone who grew up on a farm.