Ruadh • 10 • Monaghan

8-11 Category   •  2026
My Nana and Granda got me new acrylic paints and canvases for Christmas and I was very excited to use them to create this painting. Firstly, I sketched out the shape of the cow on the canvas with a 2B pencil, then I put a light wash all over the background. I then mixed the colours and created this painting. For the sky I watered down the paint a lot and when the blue sky dried I mixed some green with the blue and sprinkled some by flicking the brush on the sky. I love going to Mullaghmore during the school holidays so I decided to paint one of the cows in the field beside my Uncle’s house in Mullaghmore. The cows are so friendly and I love the colour of them. They always come over to the fence to see us when we call them. The cow has shiny black eyes with long eyelashes that make her look kind and a little bit funny too. Her nose is big and looks soft and I tried to make it look like it is wet. The cow is painted in shades of brown, orange, and white. The white patches are chunky and stand out, like clouds on her body. The brown and orange parts look warm, like the colour of autumn leaves. You can see the brushstrokes everywhere, which makes the painting feel alive, like the cow is moving. Her ears stick out on both sides, and one is a bit higher than the other, which makes her look curious, like she is coming running across the field to us. In the background, there are soft blue and green colours that look like the sky we see on a lovely sunny day by the sea in Mullaghmore. It isn’t very detailed because I wanted to make the cow stand out. I like this painting because it shows how animals can be beautiful and they are a special part of our nature in Ireland. I called my painting The Moo-na Lisa.