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Biography
About Denise Rich
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 has been interested in both art and
animals since childhood. Becoming a fine artist whose main subjects are
animals was a natural course to follow. Her focus for the past several
years has been cows because "Cows make me smile". 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 along with the six paintings that resulted from photographs Denise took at the filming of two of their television commercials in Northern California.
The cow paintings
have naturally led to Cowboys, Western and Rodeo where cows are never
far from center stage.
Denise takes her own photographs as reference for her paintings. This
enables her to draw from the field experience while referencing the
photo at the easel. She feels this gives the works a high level of
originality, as the creative process begins with framing the subject
through the lens of a camera, then it is translated through the
artist's eyes in a "painterly realism" style that satisfies a desire
for a realistic, accurate portrayal, and at the same time provides
the creative interest of expressive brush strokes and integrated color. While quite realistic when viewed from a distance, on closer
inspection the expressive brushwork and use of color become more
apparent.
Exhibitions
2005 East County Art Association "Masters of the Moment"
2006 Roswell Museum Art Center Juried Show
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 and Sale 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 and Sale Invitational - Paso Robles, CA
Awards
2006 Roswell Fine Arts League "Honorable Mention"
2006 Roswell Fine Arts League "Sponsor Award"
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)
In Print
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 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
Artist's Statement
Being an artist, I get asked a lot of questions:
"Did you always want to be an artist?", "Why Cows?", "Were you raised on a farm?"
"How long did it take you to paint that?",
and my personal favorite, "Where do you find cows in San Diego?"
Well, my family on my mother's side is from Iowa, she was born there,
that means that farmer blood is coursing through my veins! The Artist
part comes from my Father's side, my Grandmother was an artist, (my
Father has quite an artistic ability as well although he has not
pursued it), so put the two sides together and voila! You get
......Me. The Official "Happy Cow Artist!".
So pretty much, I did always want to be an artist. I love taking
photographs, which is an art in itself, and those photographs are
reference for my original oil paintings. Composition is my favorite
part, although being with the subjects themselves and taking photos
that will become oil paintings is pretty great too, then again actually
painting can't be beat. You know you are an artist when...just being
in an art supply store is fun!
I am inspired by things I like to look at, so I take pictures of them.
I like cows, cows are cute, they make me smile when I am around them.
I love the calm, curious attitude. I can relate to it, I myself am
calm and curious. And guess what else, you can't have cowboys without
cows, so I started where one should start, with cows. In California,
one of the top two dairy states, I don't have any problem finding them to take reference photos even within San Diego County!
The broadening of my subjects to include cowboys
and western is a natural progression, and I can't think of anything
else I'd rather be doing.
Oh, about how long it takes to do a painting, so far 49 years.
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