Again With the Cows…

Around the time I was painting Cycling Past Cows Under Cumulus Clouds and the kids were starting their first paintings on MDF, I had them paint a couple of cows on paper. I drew a simple cow on a piece of paper and had them paint it.

(Remember: click on the pictures below to see a slightly larger version)


Keria Brown, Cow Wanting to Find Some Grass, October 2010, Acrylic on Paper, 30x24cm


Finnegan Brown, Cow Standing in the Sun, October 2010, Acrylic on Paper, 30x24cm

They turned out so well I thought it would be fun to do something similar on MDF so I hatched in my devious little mind the “Brown Cow Project”. I cut, glued up , and prepared three (nearly) identical sized boards. Then, I drew a cow on some cardboard and cut it out to use as a stencil and drew three identical cows: one on each of the boards. Then I let the kids at it – they could paint their cows anyway they wanted…

Originally I thought I might get Amanda to try painting one of the cows (as I’d already just painted some cows…) but she didn’t seem all that interested so I painted the third one.

Here’s what we came up with:


Keria Brown, Brown Cow Triptych I, October 2010, Acrylic on MDF, 40x29cm


Finnegan Brown, Brown Cow Triptych II, October 2010, Acrylic on MDF, 40x29cm


Tim Brown, Brown Cow Triptych III, October 2010, Acrylic on MDF, 40x29cm

The irony being that none of them ended up being brown… but they were painted by Browns! Despite my vision of something resembling uniformity only one ended up looking much like the original drawing/stencil… (you can try and guess which one) but that’s all okay. Far be it from me to stifle a collaborators own artistic vision!!

I love painting with my kids…