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

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.