30 in 30....day 8

Some days life gets complicated and it's a little hard to fit in enough time to paint an entire completed painting.  I have a feeling that at the end of January I will be faced with at least a dozen canvases which need varying degrees of touching up!

Today was such a day.

However, what I did complete in the time I had feels successful to me.  Back to my favourite subject, my beloved bovine!

Sure, there's lot of anatomy corrections to make, the foreground and background to develop but all in all I like the direction this one is taking.
 
I took this picture travelling around on the back roads one early spring day last year. Obviously early as there's not a stitch of green anywhere to be seen, but somehow the cattle looked like they were just breathing a sigh of relief, as was I, after a very long winter.

I imagine if I were to take that same drive today I'd find some of the same girls huddled side by side tight to the round bale feeders with a layer of snow and ice caked on backs and the air heavy with fog as their breath steams up the entire yard. I'm not tired of winter yet, but I know that day will come very soon, and I suspect even the cows will long for the day when they can again loiter around a dry yard and soak up the first weak rays of spring light while watching the world come slowly back to life.

  

24 x 18

acrylic on canvas