CLOSE-UP : Art Decow

When Bill and Mary Henderer of Malibu wanted a portrait of their cows, they naturally steered the commission to West Hollywood artist Melissa Kohout. After all, they’d farmed out previous animal pics to the Texas-born Kohout, whose portfolio of cattle, goats, sheep, pigs and horses has made her the artist of choice among the well-hoofed. Owners of Kouhout originals include former Treasury chief Lloyd Bentsen (cattle); soap star Chris Douglas (horses) and TV producer Gary Menteer (horses and pigs).

Kohout understands why Angelenos especially snap up her work. “It’s one way for people here to have a farm,” she says, explaining that many of her clients reminisce about their childhoods in the country when they purchase the ultra-realistic studies of angora goats, Rambouillet rams or Hereford cattle.

For every Alysheba that Kohout draws (she did the racehorse in 1988 for owner Dorothy Scharbauer), she will lavish just as much care on the plain old pets of smitten owners. “Some people won’t eat for three months so they can have their pets done,” says Kohout of her work, which costs from $500 to $2,500.

But sometimes the sentiment that draws people to her pieces surprises even Kohout. There was the woman from Del Mar who came to the studio to see the portrait of her daughter’s horse. She spotted a drawing of five Herefords and bought it on the spot. “The cow in the middle was drooling,” Kohout recalls, “and it reminded her of her son when he was a baby.”