The artist as a young girl, exploring her artistic future, was temporarily sidetracked with delusions of being a dancer. It did not take long to discover that her talents were in a different artistic arena, and that she was better suited to fine arts both due to ability and the desire to remain sedentary.
A native of San Diego, Denise began painting in oil over twenty years ago. Her focus since 2004 has been cows and cattle. In 2006 Denise received a commission for the California Milk Advisory Board to paint their famous Happy Cows of the Real California Milk campaign. This led to becoming The Official Happy Cow Artist, (as seen on their website from 2007-2010 , along with the six paintings that resulted from photographs Denise took at the filming of two of their television commercials in Northern California.)
Denise takes her own photographs as reference for her paintings, and draws from the field experience while referencing the photo at the easel. The creative process begins with framing the subject through the camera lens, then it is translated through the artist's eyes in a "painterly realism" style that satisfies a desire for a realistic, accurate portrayal, with expressive brush strokes, resulting in contemporary paintings of cows that have great presence in all decor from country to formal.
Artist's Statement
I am frequently asked two things, if I always wanted to be an artist, and why cows?
I don't think an artist is created from desire, but an artist naturally has the desire to create, which in my case is overwhelming. From there it's what we do with that desire to create that makes our personal statement in the art world.
I was unexpectedly drawn to cows when I first viewed them as a subject for a painting. It only took one visit with the local Holstein herd to realize there was something special, they were not just a 'herd' of cattle, they were individuals with unique and completely charming personalities. That's what I look for most of the time to paint, and most of my paintings of cows are either close up portraits or some type of interaction. This is what moves me about them and what I work to capture for the viewer to see and feel along with me.
Each one of the cows I paint is a real individual that I met in person, had eye contact with, perhaps talked to. I took that memory home, thought about when I painted, working with the buttery oils mixing pure pigments into real life colors and brushing that color onto a fresh, white canvas until it emerged as the soul of the individual, and that moment in that cow's life will live on forever.
I can't think of anything else I'd rather be doing.
Shows, Exhibitions and Etcetera
I don't enter many shows as I am too busy working
to spend time on them, but for those of you are interested, here are the facts:
Exhibitions and Awards
2005 East County Art Association "Masters of the Moment"
2006 Roswell Museum Art Center Juried Show
2006 Roswell Fine Arts League Honorable Mention Award
2006 Roswell Fine Arts League Sponsor Award
2007 Breckenridge Fine Arts Center Juried Show
2008 Alamo 45th Annual Western Art Show Invitational - San Antonio, TX
2008 Cattlemen's 18th Western Art Show Invitational - Paso Robles, CA
2008 St Clair Gallery Invitational-El Cajon, CA
2008 American Plains Artists 24th Annual Juried Show-Museum of the Southwest Midland, Tx
2008 2nd Annual Art About Agriculture Show-California Oil Museum-Santa Paula, California
2008 39th Annual Mountain Oyster Club Comtemporary Western Art Show and Sale
2009 Alamo 46th Annual Western Art Show Invitational- San Antonio, TX
2009 Cattlemen's 19th Western Art Show Invitational - Paso Robles, CA
2009 Bosque Conservatory Art Classic-Clifton TX
2009 California Art Club Centennial Exhibition-San Diego Back Country-Julian Art Gallery, Julian, CA
2010 Cattlemen's 20th Western Art Show Invitational- Paso Robles, CA
Upcoming show: 2011 Cattlemen's 21st Western Art Show Invitational-Paso Robles, CA
Commissions
American Jersey Cattle Association
American Guernsey Cattle Association
Holstein World
California Milk Advisory Board (Painting the 'Happy Cows" of the Real California Cheese campaign)
Various private commissions internationally
In The Media
2005 2006 Calendar for Animart
2006 JDIP 2nd Annual Conference U.C. Davis Abstract Book Cover
2006 Original titled "Cow Head" Licensed for use in print ad Prince-Agri products
2007 Channel 10 News feature
2007 JDIP 3rd Annual Conference Texas A&M University Book cover
2008 JDIP 4th Annual Conference Abstract Book Cover
2008 Lakeside Rodeo Program Cover
2008 Denise's work is the subject of a column of Mary Engelbreit's Home Companion Magazine
February/March edition
