cows and rabbits

StephanHM

howdy everyone, sorry i haven't posted or interacted much lately, things have gotten very busy as they often do.

here are my two latest paintings [finished these back in winter]

The rabbits belong to a friend of mine, and i had to patch this together digitally before painting so that was a new challenge!

the reference:

a couple cows i saw in southern alberta two years ago. i love painting very dark subjects. black and the colours just beside it on the value scale are my favourites! [so you can imagine that light colours are NOT my favourite but i will learn how to deal with them haha]

I'm on an extended painting hiatus at the moment. i mentioned this cow photo is two years old, and that's because i have run out of photos to paint from!!! its a real dilemma, one which i will attack with full force this summer.

thanks for reading, i hope you are all doing well these days! )

Stephan

P.S. A friend of mine has helped me carve out some painting time before i properly end my painting hiatus actually, i will be painting an onion still life for them! ) ideally i'd like this to be really accurate so i will have to really be patience and draw it all nicely before i start on the painting. hoping to get this done in july:

Richard_P

I like both of these. Especially the rabbit painting which is very well done. You've caught the feel of the fur

Good luck with the onion still life!

tassieguy

The rabbits and cows look really good, @stephanHM. I love the blue light reflecting off the coat of the cows. 

I look forward to seeing what you do with the inions. 

heartofengland

The cows are great. You've captured their personality beautifully. They look half grown, still curious and ready to reel away if you shout at them. The noses, wonky front leg, steady gaze and handlebar ears are perfect. I'm surrounded by dairy farms and these pair could have come from a couple of herds I know. 

The rabbits look real and would be great on greetings/birthday/get well soon card. @PaulB is the expert on rabbits though🤭

GTO

I’m not a big fan of cow paintings but I am extremely impressed with this one.  I see what you mean about working with dark subjects.  I an very interested in seeing how you paint the onions.

A_Time_To_Paint

Really great paintings.  The rabbits look very realistic.  It looks like you've captured the personality of the cows.  Contrast and light look great.  Looking forward to seeing your rendition of the onion and garlic painting.  

allforChrist

Beautiful paintings, I'm very impressed and excited to see your treatment of the onions.

oilpainter1950

Nice paintings sounds so blah, but they really are very pleasing.  The still life will be beautiful when finished.  The lighting and color will make it extra special.

Mio

The bunnies are particularly satisfying 😄

StephanHM

@Richard_P

 Thanks very much! ) I have a bit of a difficult time with the fur [i redid the white rabbit’s nose about five times] but I’m glad it turned out ok!

StephanHM

@tassieguy Hey thanks a bunch! The blue light was my favourite part of the painting, though i had to be careful not to get carried away, haha

StephanHM

@heartofengland Funnily enough, these cows ARE moving away from me, I took these photos on our way out from a stay at a ranch in Alberta, Canada and they had conglomerated thickly across the road and I was hanging out the window snapping pictures while we very gently and carefully drove through them.
And that’s a good tip, I’ll see how Paul handled them!

StephanHM

@GTO

You know, I find that I agree with you on cow paintings generally. Most of the contemporary pictures of cows [and I suppose historical ones] tend to stray into the realm of bucolic sentimentality, which can be off putting. 

I’m planning a larger and much more involved series of paintings based around livestock in the coming year and it’s definitely something to watch out for!

I have a strong interest in cattle, from living in a beef producing region and also I have read a lot about them from Temple Grandin, a personal hero of mine.

And I’ll make a thread on my progress on the onions, I’d love to hear some advice on them

StephanHM

@A_Time_To_Paint Thank you so much, I’m glad you like them!!
I’ll be making a thread about the onions so I can post my process pictures, really looking forward to participating more in the forum

StephanHM

@oilpainter1950

Oh I certainly know what you mean about “nice”, but in the rabbit case it is a pet portrait so my goal was to make it very pleasant for the rabbit’s owner to look at, and in general I’m very interested right now in making art that pleases. It’s kind of like the opposite of the insult “may you live in interesting times”, I want my paintings to be very calm.

Thanks for your input

StephanHM

@Mio

Thanks! I’m pretty happy with how they turned out. 

Also I noticed you were featured by the Federation of Canadian Artists, congratulations!

Mio

StephanHM said:

@Mio

Thanks! I’m pretty happy with how they turned out. 

Also I noticed you were featured by the Federation of Canadian Artists, congratulations!

I was? Wait what, where?

anwesha

aww.. the baby rabbits look adorable! very well painted. the cows too!

jay80

The rabbits are awesome, the cows are great too, but bunnies, too cute!

StephanHM

Mio said:

StephanHM said:

@Mio

Thanks! I’m pretty happy with how they turned out. 

Also I noticed you were featured by the Federation of Canadian Artists, congratulations!

I was? Wait what, where?

I'm not sure now! I thought I saw some of your paintings on the CFA website, mentioning that you were a senior member, but I may be mistaken! I've totally lost the particular link unfortunately. It may have been someone else.

StephanHM

@anwesha thanks very much!! Hoping to do more of both of them before too long

StephanHM

@jay80 thanks very much!! pretty happy with how they turned out

Mio

StephanHM said:

Mio said:

StephanHM said:

@Mio

Thanks! I’m pretty happy with how they turned out. 

Also I noticed you were featured by the Federation of Canadian Artists, congratulations!

I was? Wait what, where?

I'm not sure now! I thought I saw some of your paintings on the CFA website, mentioning that you were a senior member, but I may be mistaken! I've totally lost the particular link unfortunately. It may have been someone else.

Oh right, of course. Yes I am an SFCA. Sometimes they do features on artists, but I so far haven't gotten the free marketing :P 

Abstraction

heartofengland said:

The cows are great. You've captured their personality beautifully. They look half grown, still curious and ready to reel away if you shout at them.

Ha. Such a familiar experience. So big, but so easily spooked.

The rabbits are a nice composition - everything works to keep the interest. And the cattle also are designed to make your eyes move back in steps until you hit the hills way in the distance - creating dimension on a 2D panel. My eyes make 5-6 steps back to get to the hills. The sheen on the cattle - (angus I assume?) is nicely done. Difficult to paint dimension on black objects which you've done well.