Designing a Clucking Calendar

I began last night, gathering up images of the chickens I have already painted so that I can make the much-asked-for chicken calendar for 2016.

I have eight or nine (depending whether I end up combining the two Noble Hens, #4 and 5 in the squares above, into a diptych, which I may), so I need three or four more. Actually I have many more chickens than that, but for the calendar I'm only using the ones I've done in mixed media on paper.

For those of you who might be asking, "But what about the horses?", fear not. The 2016 horse calendar is also in its early design stages, but because I already did one of those last year, I actually have fewer horses than I have chickens.

If you feel this is unacceptable, send me horse photos. :-D

Heeere, Chick Chick Chickiieee

Clarabelle, 8" x 10", original available, 295 unframed/350 framed. Click here for prints of her.

"Heeeere, chick chick chickiiieeee" was the dinner call, when I was a kid. We had a coop full of Rhode Island Reds, and it was my job to take care of them and collect the eggs. I've liked chickens pretty much all my life, and I've found Barred Plymouth Rocks very fun to draw and paint.

Matilda in the Forget-me-Nots, 10" x 8", sold. Click here for prints of her!

These three -- Clarabelle, at top; Matilda (sold), center; Proud Thomas, below -- are all 8 x 10" creations in watercolor and pen on pure cotton printmaking paper.

Proud Thomas, 10" x 8." Click here for prints of this piece.

As I write this post, the only one I know for certain is still available is Clarabelle. Thomas went to the Holiday Sale at Minnetonka Center for the Arts and I don't know his status at the moment.

If you're thinking it probably takes a Really Long Time to draw and paint all those stripey feathers, you are correct! The effect is really wonderful, though, so I do it anyway.

You know, I really ought to put together a class on Making Chicken. :-D

Testing

Just got the Blogger app for my phone, so this is me, testing it out!

Say hi to Roberta the Hen, y'all.

Fox in the Henhouse!

This fun poster is now available at my Fine Art America page.  I love it a lot and may order one for myself, since I'm selling all the originals at the Art of the Holidays Sale over at Minnetonka Center for the Arts.

FAA has a lot of Chicken Art and I expect to add more over the coming months.

The Great Chicken Art Mystery

Chicken Sister (Pop), 10 x 8" oil on canvas

What is it about paintings of chickens? I've discovered that people LOVE them, and I can always sell them -- usually pretty fast!

 

The Chicken Sisters (Pop and Punk), 10 x 8" each, oil on canvas. Available at $125 each; $225 for the set.

This isn't a complaint. I grew up with a henhouse in the back yard, and I think chickens are fun to watch -- all those rounded forms and surprising shapes make them interesting art subjects. I know why I like them, but I like a lot of things and few of them get the kind of response that the chickens do.

Chicken Sister (Punk), 10 x 8" oil on canvas

 So, what do you think it is about chicken art?

Drive-By Chickens

Chorus Girls II, 12 x 24" oil on canvas, by commission. Click to enlarge -- it doesn't shrink down that well.

FUN.

And with that, I must dash out the door to go get food and cocktails deliver a horse portrait.

Here, Chickie Chickie Chickie

Chorus Girls, 10 x 20" oil on canvas, for the Black & White Show at Maple Grove ArtsCenter. Available, $195. 

 

My source photo, above. I found it fit a 1:2 format perfectly, and I had a 10 x 20" canvas on hand, so we were off to the races. First step, get the drawing established. Below, the drawing in brown pastel pencil, which is easy to erase or paint over. Regular graphite pencil is NOT, so I don't use it when I paint.

I don't often outline forms before I paint them. This time, I wanted a little bit of a graphic flavor to the painting, so I used a liner brush to establish my drawing before I began blocking in the light and shadow.

Much as I loved the tractor wheels in the source photo, I really couldn't use them in the painting. Sometimes, you have to sacrifice things you love a lot, in order to get what you love the most. In this picture, I loved the sense of movement and rhythm of the hens and I'd have lost that if I'd junked up the background, so the tractor had to go.

Oil paints usually work best if you start with the shadows and then add more and more light, so that's what I did here. Overall this is very thin paint, and will be dry to the touch in a couple days.

Red Rooster #1 and #2

Oil on panel; both 12" x 12". Sold. Painted at the Red Gala for the Maple Grove Arts Center.

Vinny the Rooster

Vinny belonged to Barbara at Coffee On Broadway in Robbinsdale, MN. He is sadly deceased, and today I drew an homage from some snapshots Barbara had on hand.

Vinny the Rooster, graphite, charcoal pencil and chalk on paper, approx. 7 x 9."




9/30 UPDATE! This drawing now has a new home with Barbara of Coffee On Broadway, here in Robbinsdale.