Born in 1960, the artist Paul Jansen began his creative journey as a photographer, and this photographic influence remains visible in his paintings today. These idiosyncratic compositions and daring framing are especially evident in his characteristic cow portraits.
Cows have been the central theme in Paul Jansen's oeuvre for many years. He becomes fascinated by the wonderful and sometimes almost absurd shapes of this animal. In contrast to cattle painters from earlier centuries, in which the cattle often served as part of the landscape or to embellish it, Jansen places the cows so prominently in the foreground that there is often no room left for the landscape itself.
Some of his cow portraits appear almost abstract because of the way Jansen plays with color and flatness, accentuating the residual shapes. The cow's head is placed in the plane in such a way that this residual shape becomes as intriguing as possible. The cows are painted so lifelike that the heads sometimes actually and symbolically appear to protrude outside the frame of the painting.
Paul Jansen paints the cow as an individual with its own soul and personality, creating a profound connection between the viewer and these majestic animals.
