On the March

I suppose this is an oil study, more than anything else.  It's based on a photograph on Tennyson Down, Freshwater Bay, Isle of Wight, by my younger brother Brian.  An area I know very well, although I'm not on first name terms with the cow.

For those interested in these things, I used only lead whites, no Titanium (which I very rarely do, but it made for a very different painting experience) plus Mars Red, Naples Yellow, Chrome Yellow Hue, Yellow Ochre, Cobalt Blue Hue, French Ultramarine, and a bit of Cobalt Violet.

The last of these colours is extremely expensive, and I wouldn't normally use it - but I have a very old tube, and indeed apart from the white just about all the paint used in this was decades old.  In oil, you can do that - in the tube, the paint rarely deteriorates.

I don't think I've ever painted a cow before - and they're not especially easy.

Determined Cow, oil on board, 8" by 10"