Chickens and a Pooch

I finally got some painting accomplished - under a deadline, naturally, but hey, whatever it takes.
This work, Zumbrota Chickens, is actually a design for a street banner  in Zumbrota this summer. The canvas is 12 x 24, but the banner size will be 22 x 28, so a bit will be cropped off the sides. I wanted to keep it simple, graphic and bright, so the image could be easily understoodfrom a distance and it would have fun  summer colors.  Zumbrota is kind of an artsy farming town, so chickens seemed appropriate, plus they are one of my favorite subjects.

Happy Dog at Picket Fence. This one looks better in real life than the photo, I think.  It is for the Artist-Poetry  exhibit at Crossings in April. My assigned poem was very straight-forward, an image of a happy dog inside a picket fence, just "Happy to be Hamlet."  As I stated in my artist notes, I chose this poem because I had recently acquired a puppy, Zinnie. (I didn't state that I am also taking  Mindfulness Meditation classes, so the theme is a fit in that way, too.)

 I have been wanting to try painting  something monochromatic, with subtle hints of color. This white-on-white-on-color is what I ended up with.  A big change from my usual exuberant colors, but it occurred to me that the colors are barely contained beneath the surface of the white, seeping out from under the edges, just as a puppy's exuberant energy is barely controlled by obedience training. 

LaFonda in the Snow

LaFonda in the Snow   50 x 40  acrylic on canvas

I got to paint today! The mega-upholstering project is on hold for a week, so I am going to paint my heart out until then.

One snowy morning last winter when I went out to feed the cows, I noticed that all you could really see of LaFonda (my milk cow) in the snowstorm was her dark spots and her very pink udder emerging from the white world.

I painted a little painting  (20 x 16) inspired by this image. It was in my  exhibit at Crossings last February and sold the first night, during the opening, to a woman from Los Angeles, so it went home with her that night and not many people got to see it. I have wanted to re-paint this idea ever since, but on a much larger scale.

Today I worked on version 2 of this painting, LaFonda in the Snow, on a 50 x 40 recycled canvas. I am not sure yet if it is is all the way there, but it's close. The  recycled canvas was a "sofa-sized original" mass produced in the 70's, so I didn't feel bad gessoing over it, and the canvas is good quality. I like when my paintings have layers beneath and this one had a great texture of paint to give me a head start. 

Jitterbug in the Snow

Jitterbug in the Snow   11 x 14 acrylic on canvas

My little black Dexter heifer, Jitterbug, usually looks like a silhouette out in the pasture, except when there has been a dusting of snow.   Then she reminds me of a gingerbread cutout cookie dusted with confectioners sugar.

I think this painting manages to be sort of abstract and realistic at the same time.

I can't believe I am actually on track so far - 6 paintings in 6 days.  I have a humongous  project with a deadline demanding my attention, so we'll see if I can still eek out a painting a day.  It is quite inspiring to see what all the other artists are doing -- such a broad range of approaches and subjects. I have identified a few favorite artists now that I  can't wait each day to see what they have done.  Check out the work of all the participants in the  30-Paintings in 30-Days challenge at  Leslie Saeta's blog. 

Barns and Coop in Winter

Outbuildings in Winter    12 x 12 Acrylic on Canvas

When we first moved to our little farm, my husband remarked "I see a lot of sweet paintings of farm buildings coming up."  Well, that was over 4 years ago and this is my first painting of the farm buildings! My paintings got distracted by the farm critters. (He is an architect and I am the livestock person, after all.)

These are three of the eight structures of Squash Blossom Farm. I truly love how our barn, loafing shed and coop form one half of a little courtyard on our farm and the garage and house enclose the other two sides. And after living with the vivid red outbuildings in the comparatively colorless winter, I would never want them to be any other color.

Landscape painting, particularly of buildings, is not really my forte'.  I don't know if I am even capable of painting straight, square lines, let alone want to. Crookedly lines and crazy angles seem to have much more character to me (good thing Rog is the architect of the family, not me!) But I managed to get this straight enough that maybe the crookedy parts convey the century-old settling of the buildings.

This painting is 12 inches square - pretty small for me.  If I am going to paint this miniature, I am going to have to invest in some smaller brushes- it's hard to get much detail with #12  bristle flats!