Hen in the Garden

Hen in the Garden

© 2012

7" x 9.5" (painted surface)

watercolors and inks on Arches watercolor paper

This is part of a series featuring farm animals in the garden (to read the whole scoop as to why I am depicting farm animals in the garden, get the details from THIS BLOG POST). The rest of the series is through THIS LINK. This is the second original painting in the series even though it was the last one I painted. But for the purposes of this blog, I am listing them in terms of least favorite to favorite... which is to say that I like this one more than the first previous one I listed on this blog for the series. 

As I was explaining to Karen Anne, one of my readers (and a wonderful artist in her own right), I tried to produce 4 paintings in 2 weeks. One of the paintings took 10 days because the background needed so much work (but in the end, it is my favorite one). Then another painting took 3 days. This left only one whole day (and late into an evening) to paint 2 more paintings. This is one of the "quickie" paintings. 

This time for the border, I used a saturated blue ink instead of watercolor. The borders in both of the "quickie paintings" translates more like a solid blue color rather than the mottled blue that you see in the scans. Perhaps at some point I will take a picture so that you can see what I mean. Not sure why it doesn't scan well -- the bumpiness of the watercolor paper?  The background behind the hen is a subtle wash of turquoise with a little bit of yellow up towards the top. It was so light that it got washed out when scanned too.

I will try to list these more frequently now that I have submitted my work for a show deadline.

(please note: because of so much backlog and delay of listing my new work on this blog, my website won't be updated for awhile). 

other links:

WEBSITE

Rooster with Border

Rooster with Border
© 2012

mini watercolor and ink painting on Arches watercolor paper, 4" x 6" (oswoa)

This is one of 4 paintings I have been working on in almost marathon style. It is my least favorite of the 4, so as I go along, I'll eventually show you my best one (best one being the one I like the most and which reflects my personality and interests).

The self imposed assignment is to create 4 paintings in 2 weeks that have to do with farm animals. I am choosing to do farm animals with flowers and a garden theme. In this one, the garden theme is less apparent except for the yellow flowers in the border.

Some background on the assignment: I am creating these for an art show which has to depict or to be about some aspect of agriculture. I grew up in the country where the view from the back of the house was pasture land (mainly for cows). My parents were gardeners and had this lovely flower garden in the foundation of an old stone silo. Occasionally the farm animals would break through their fencing and be all over our yard and especially in my parents garden eating everything in sight. Thus, it seemed natural for me to pick the theme of farm animals and the garden.   

Just a special note to my readers: I have been missing from action for 2 reasons: I didn't have access to my blog through Internet Explorer (had to upload Google Chrome in order for it to be useful to me again) plus the painting marathon I mentioned above.

links:

WEBSITE