A vacant store in Perth's central shopping district has become home to 40 artists hard at work transforming a fibreglass herd of cows into a public art display.

Cow Parade is an international arts organisation that offers 60-kilogram, 2.8-metre-long white cows to communities as a blank canvas to transform.

The herd will disperse after being painted in the 'cow shed'. ( 720 ABC Perth: Emma Wynne )

Seventy-nine parades have been held around the world since the initiative started in 1998, but the Perth iteration, organised by the council's Public Art Foundation, is taking a different approach.

Instead of community members putting up their hands to paint the cows, the foundation invited artists to take part.

"What we wanted to do for the community was to create diversity between the artwork, and the only way to do that was to implement a curated shortlist," Public Art Foundation executive director Nathan Giles said.

"We are trying to make it more of a showcase of our depth and breadth of our artists' practice here in WA, from senior to emerging artists.

"We have commissioned sculptors, urban artists, fashion designers and Indigenous artists, both traditional and urban.

"We just think it's going to provide a more interesting parade for the general public which will inspire them to traverse the whole city and look at all 40 cows."

Amy Perejuan-Capone's cow reflects themes of the ocean and is dotted with tiny ships. ( 720 ABC Perth: Emma Wynne )

Currently, the Cow Parade workshop resembles a ghostly milking shed where the big white herd is being painted, clothed and re-sculpted according to each artist's vision.

Once the parade has taken place in November, the herd will disperse around the city until December 11.

After that, the cows will move to permanent homes around Perth, including the new children's hospital, Perth airport and the Art Gallery of Western Australia.

The shared workshop has also provided a rare opportunity for artists who normally work in solitary studios.

Jana Braddock painstakingly hand draws a skeleton design on her cow. ( 720 ABC Perth: Emma Wynne )

"This really does provide a unique opportunity for emerging to senior artists across multiple discipline forms to work together," Mr Giles said.

"Most artists work in isolation without any kind of support.

"All of the artists have commented on how interesting and helpful that has been.

"For quite a few of the artists that is what inspired them to become part of the project, that collaborative opportunity."