I made this piece in an introductory painting class. I was asked to create a 16-inch by 20-inch painting depicting a natural disaster. With the recent wildfires in the last few years, many pets and farm animals have been left behind while their humans rush to evacuate. After reading an article about a farmer who released his cows into the wild to give them a chance to live since he didn’t have time to get them to safety, I decided to paint this cow in the woods trying to escape a wildfire. To create a reference, I collaged together photos of a wildfire and a cow via Photoshop.