Day 25: Ruminate Until the Cows Come Home

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“Ruminate” 6×6, oil on canvas [creativ_button url=”https://denisehopkinsfineart.com/product/ruminate-6×6-oil-canvas/” icon=”” label=”Buy Now” colour=”blue” colour_custom=”” size=”medium” edge=”straight” target=”_self”]

Months ago I was listening to a podcast (can’t even remember which one) and the host described the origin of the word “ruminate”. Below is the etymology from Merriam-Webster’s online dictionary.

Latin ruminatus, past participle of ruminarito chew the cud, muse upon, from rumin-, rumen rumen; perhaps akin to Sanskrit romantha act of chewing the cud.

As soon as I heard the description of a cow chewing and re-chewing regurgitated food, I got excited. What? You expected a different reaction?

This whole painting process has been one of ruminating– what if I try this or that? What if instead of that I do this? What if I do what I’ve always done but just tweak it in this nearly imperceptible way? What if I run my palette knife across this image that I’ve so diligently and painstakingly been working on? What if I become this other type of painter all together… What if?

As a little nod to these ruminations and the idea of ruminating all together, I started a cow painting this morning. For a reference, I used an older photograph I had taken at the Global Wildlife Center. That painting went okay. There are parts of it I really like and parts of it that are begging for more rumination. So I started another, smaller painting of the same cow hoping that what I’d learned in the first painting would help me with the second. I was cautiously optimistic. The second painting came swiftly and easily. I’m a little in love with it, so I’m using it for today’s painting and am saving the first for some reworking tomorrow.

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