Last year at the third weekend in May Old Capitol Art Fair, I ran into two McHenry County artists.

The first was Woodstock painter Sue Skowronski. I got a photo of her and her husband Paul.

She will be exhibiting again in Springfield on this May 16th and 17th.

If that’s too far to go, she will be in St. Charles May 23rd and 24th.

Her whole tent was full of cows.

Holsteins from McHenry County, she told me.

Hartland Township Holsteins.

Holsteins with personalities by the former portrait artist.

Skowronski also paints barns and landscapes.

Here is a bit of how she explains how she was drawn to cows on her web site:

“I started out as a portrait artist, but the burning of a local barn inspired me to do a series of paintings of the barns near my home. I set out to preserve on canvas the images of these rapidly disappearing structures before suburbia made them a memory.

“This naturally progressed to painting the cows that inhabit the landscape, and I realized that I find something peaceful and nurturing about cows.

“…The cows in my paintings seem to display human characteristics that we can all recognize, either in others or ourselves.”

And, you know what?

One of her paintings was featured on the cover of the Art Fair program.