Cows - Placing - Composing

How do you 'place' cows?

Back in the meadow, the land I love, the smell of grass, the big skies, the beautiful cows.

A Cow painting needs your 'flow' as much as it needs your analytical 'sight', structuring a composition, or "placing them" isn't easy.
Painting a tree, meadow, these are 'fixed' and we can choose a spot for what we see is there. Yes, weather, colors, skies, light, all can change, but that the set-up for 'cows' will change is a GIVEN😀
So we need to structure 'them', or the painting as a total, in our minds eye (too).

◆ Often I'll start with just one cow. We can sketch out a group, but there will probably only be time to study one at a time.
◆ You can place a few intuitively, yes, then step back, let the analytical part of yourself speak, to test if what you've put down is worth to keep, or in need of change.◆ Test by looking at it via a mirror, or by taking a snapshot, or by taking a walking break, or by taking ten steps away from it.

When you chose a wrong place for your cows, or they are too big, too small, too centered sometimes, you can see in your 'testing' if it blocks the harmony of the total composition.◆ So we need to experiment, with placement, size, perspective.
And about ‘wrong’: don’t fear taking cows OUT of your painting to replace, move or re-size after (!)
◆ It’s becoming a better painting when you can BOTH - add and -remove without attaching too much to what you painted earlier.
And this is also the REASON to not waste time with detailing too much.◆ You need to FIRST get the bigger OVERALL composition in check. (Both in composition/elements as in big color blocks for the composition as a whole)

◆ You can also paint a herd, more midway in the field, paint them simpler, further away, more simplified into lights on their back, and shadows.

Good Days- Bad Days
A lucky cow painting day is when they're there, as a small group, and they stay in somewhat the same position LONG ENOUGH to have a rough shape (and light / shadow) painted.
Do it more often ◆ it will be easier the more you understand their shapes, colors, etc.

Low Expectations - High Input
◆  All you need to do as a painter is creating 'snapshots in paint'. You do not need to produce something '100% perfect', it doesn't exist, moments can be perfect, we can catch a glimpse, and That's Enough!
Paint more often, repeat the subjects, objects, and you'll gain more control over the experiments over time. And that will give more joy too.

200. LSU03-2024 Landscape Cow Family 20x25 cm | 8x10" Oils/Panel | Roos Schuring 2024
These paintings are placed in my paintings shop here

🐃 🐂 🐄🐃 🐂 🐄🐃 🐂 🐄🐃 🐂 🐄🐃 

Update 2026: I have been re-designing my 'Cows Books' (books with themed paintings in overview) and I expect these to be available for sale at the beginning of February '26 -
FIND THE BOOKS HERE

 I also have Cow paintings for sale
in my PAINTING SHOP here