Beef Free

The first of two paintings inspired by our summer holiday in Spain this year. We stayed in a remote house, on a nature reserve close to a village called Jimena de la Frontera. It’s a beautiful mountain town, surrounded by farms with horses, goats and cows.

One view was particularly attractive to me: a field of dry grass and cork trees, rolling hills, and a lot of cows with their perfectly pointed, dangerous horns, grazing. Are they milk cows or are they kept for their meat? Every time we drove past this field, I couldn’t stop admiring the landscape.

The cows seemed to enjoy endless freedom, but of course they’re never actually free. I would like them to be free in this painting, however, so there are no fences or barriers here. I hope that when you see this herd of cows, you can also feel the freedom of the wilderness.

Something a bit old, but the ideas are still new