Here I am!

I promised I would post about a particular new painting, so here I am. 

My grandparents had a dairy farm when I was a kid, and I loved being around cows.  Nowadays, living in the suburbs, I don't get to be around cows that often.

My latest work, the Purple Cow, is fabulous (in my humble opinion). She didn't start out that way, though.  I use bits and pieces of what pictures I have on paper and pictures in my head for a blend of images and emotion for all my paintings.  I went through several photos of cows that I got from friends, so she doesn't really look like any one particular cow.  This is typical of my way of painting.  

This is how she started:

She went through several transformations as I gradually made up my mind how she should look.  Her phases are shown below.

So, you see, nothing ever starts exactly the way it ends.  I'm sure some artists are more calculating and are able to go precisely from point A to point B without changing their routes, but this artist meanders a little like ... well, a cow.