The man walked into the gallery, studied several paintings, and then purchased one of Carol Peek’s paintings of a Holstein. “I have to have this painting,” he told the gallery staff member, “and I don’t even like cows!”

It was a great compliment for Peek, who says, “I got him to feel something about a subject he never would have looked at before. Something I felt was transferred to him through paint. When people say, ‘I didn’t know a cow could be so beautiful,’ I love it, because they can feel that I loved painting it.”

And that, she says, is what she strives for, no matter the subject. “It’s always about the feeling,” she says of her work.

Carol Peek

Knee High in Spring
Oil
16″x20″
“These three horses were blissfully content, grazing in this lush, spring pasture across the street. Their zigzag composition was irresistible, and the wispy softness of the pasture complemented, contrasted, and enhanced the strong, solid forms of the horses.”

Carol Peek

Summer Harmony
Oil
9″x12″
“This was one of those summer evenings, when the color of the light was a buttery, pinkish orange that seemed to fill every corner of the world. The air was so still I could hear the swoosh of the cows’ tails swinging at the flies that wanted to rest on their shining coats. There was an extraordinary ambience of peace and harmony, and I can still remember the feeling of being in that place on that particular evening.”