God, Goats, and Pickup Trucks
Maurice Schmidt’s Visions of Texas
Black and Brown Cows amidst the Trees
2012, Oil on Linen

“This painting depicts red and black cows and calves casually strolling through the trees. It’s a summer day, and the warm sunlight makes the cows come to life. The cool blue-black gleam of the darker cows contrasts with the warmer red of the others. This is a slow-moving painting. None of these cows are rushed or hurried on this warm summer day. Cattle have a sort of comfortable rhythm to their movements. These animals are in their own world, interacting with each other. For this particular painting, I went up to watch this herd on a hill at a good distance. As I was watching them, I noticed some of the cows intently watching me. All of a sudden, like some magic signal, four of them came down the hill in unison to size me up at a fixed distance. Eventually the cows must have recognized that I didn’t quite belong, and returned to their herd. It was as if each of us knew something about the other. For a moment we felt a sense of our different language, but still understood each other.”