Who do happy cows turn to for their bovine portraits? None other than East County’s businesswoman and bovine portraiture expert Denise Rich—the official Happy Cow artist.
The real California Milk Happy Cow advertising invited her to one of their tapings. Other artists’ paint cows but Rich paints them in a style all her own showing each as an individual cow not just a stock picture of a cow or cows. Happy cows know this about her.
Who do happy cows turn to for their bovine portraits? None other than East County’s businesswoman and bovine portraiture expert Denise Rich—the official Happy Cow artist.
The real California Milk Happy Cow advertising invited her to one of their tapings. Other artists’ paint cows but Rich paints them in a style all her own showing each as an individual cow not just a stock picture of a cow or cows. Happy cows know this about her.
“All cows are happy to me,” said Rich, “Except Pearl.”
Pearl was the “there’s one in every cow crowd” exception for Rich adding, “Pearl had issues.” Rich’s clients hail from Norway, United Kingdom, U.S., Canada, and all over.
Her cow paintings and more were part of the Olaf Wieghorst Museum Foundation’s Artist Reception event held May 2.
Along with Rich three other artists were shown consisting of sculptor James Kermott, painter Rod Lindgren, and painter Chuck McPherson.
Kermott’s sculptures seemed an apt fit among Olaf Wieghorst’s stunning western themed artwork. Kermott is currently in Peru.
Lindgren’s collection showed parts of San Diego County with Lindgren noting that to paint a boulder is much more difficult than it looks. Much of Lindgren’s work is done with oil on gessoed panels.
Besides understanding the difficulty in painting boulders Lindgren presents as being adept at painting clouds. He attributes his fascination with clouds as a natural byproduct of staring out the windows during grade school and studying cloud patterns.
McPherson was painting even while the wine and appetizer s were being served. McPherson’s watercolor paintings ranged from canvases that looked almost like photographs to ones that incorporated coffee and lipstick.
On hand was the Museum’s director, Earlene Hollmichel, who has a great collection of anecdotes about Olaf Wieghorst and big plans for more events at the Museum such as a fashion show on May 31 at the Ronald Reagan Center in El Cajon.
For further information on up-and-coming Museum events visit www.wieghorstmuseum.org.
