Description
“Still Hill II” is a large-scale, 48″ x 48″ expansion born from my original, smaller “Still Hill” canvas. With this piece, I wanted to experiment with a mix of mediums, letting flowing inks travel across the surface while grounding everything with acrylic paint and raw charcoal linework. The initial inspiration came from a herd of cows I watched while traveling through Italy, but since we have a deep ranch life here in our own valley, I tweaked their forms to resemble our local cattle grazing the hillsides.
The painting radiates with an intense, sun-drenched palette of fiery oranges, golden yellows, and rich terracotta tones. Scattered across the warm pastures is a herd of cattle, some resting while others graze. If you look closely at the mother cow near the center, you’ll spot her long, prominent horns. While female cows don’t traditionally carry horns like this, I intentionally included them as a symbolic metaphor to portray just how hard a mother’s life is—protecting, enduring, and caring for her herd.
Beyond its fine art presence, this canvas also serves as a crucial layout page for my children’s book, Wackadoodle the Poodle. It represents the exact pasture where Moe and Wackadoodle celebrate their exciting match, standing as the backdrop to the weeks they spent playing together.