When I went back into the studio full time after my children left for college, chickens were my first serious subject matter. My friend had 3 beautiful Wyandottes at her barn where we kept our horse and I’d studied them for weeks - by sketching them or photographing them to sketch later.
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I fell head over heels with them, beautiful, inquisitive, delicate but tough. I learned to speak chicken (really) and they became a huge part of my portfolio. I drew and drew and drew them and those drawings sparked painting ideas and the paintings led to collage/ mixed media images too. I don’t think there’s anything about them that I don’t love.
Drawing of some kind provides the basis of the compositions, and I then build the piece on top, or I build up a textured ground and then work over that with detail. Some images begin as small color studies on paper, that I then develop as larger canvases, others developed from sketchbook work. Like most chickens I’ve met, I try to keep them energetic, inquisitive and lively.