Youth Art Month-Chick One

Chick One

11" x 14"

oil

This was my first "Chicken Clinic" piece, started at the first Plein Aire Painting Workshop in Calvert last October. I've done a little finishing on it, signed it, and I'm calling it finished.

The "Chicken Clinic" is an exercise, designed to loosen up artists and to familiarize them with their palette and painting techniques. It's fast, loose, and free, and begins with shapes.

I had a little trouble because, for one thing, my Max II paints, that clean up with water , dried too fast and they were like painting with sticky chewing gum. Using a lot of turpentine with them, helped that problem some. But they were still hard to move around on the canvas.

You can use various mediums with the Max II paints, the same as you would use for normal oils, so that might help. But, out on location, we just had low odor turpentine.

Another thing that I had problems with was getting up and down out of a chair, to see the demonstrations close up. My knees just don't like that at all! So, I tried to stay put, and see from where I was. I thought I would put all my effort and discomfort into getting up, one final time, when we left the location. And I worried that my chair would turn over, or that I couldn't get up after sitting a while. Still, I thought it best to just stay put and try to see from where I was. (My knees have needed replacing for years, so that is the reason for the problem with getting up and down from a chair.)

My eyes also have problems (wet Macular Degeneration and cataracts), so I don't see colors, lines, or even things as they really are. We started with a sort of oval shape for the head. Then there was this nice curved line, going from the back of the head to the body, which was another larger oval. V...., our instructor came by to check on everyone's progress, and she commented that my curved line made my bird look like an egret, with a curved neck. It turned out that the curved line I seemed to see, was actually a cone, with straight outside edges. No curves. That was just the AMD making me see a curve when none was there.

I fixed it, but you can still see that curve, working in the neck of my rooster!

We got in the basics of the rooster, with most people coming out with a really good looking rooster. I had things placed and colors, but it didn't look a lot like a rooster should!

I thought, "I should have looked at a rooster before I tried to paint one!"

My rooster looks like it came out of one of the old cartoons that we used to see in the movies. The hint of an eye, looked like a cartoon eye, he had a little smirk on his beak, and a nice round cheek. So, after looking at it for a while, I just went with some of the cartoon features that seemed to want to come out. (I know I watched a lot of cartoons at the movies, and read a lot of funny books when I was young!) I defined his eyelid and eye, a little more, added a little more blush in his cheek, lightened his legs to show more against the dark background, added more color in his tail, added the "hangy down thingy" under his beak, and added more lighter red on his wing. Not a lot of changes, but enough to call it finished.

I'm going to have to look at what roosters look like!

The second one was better, and somewhat different. Progress.

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Barbara brought me some pictures that she took at the Plein Aire Workshops. I'll add those on my blog, now that I have them scanned. Good thing I scanned them yesterday. A thunderstorm rolled through this morning, so I unplugged the computer. Now, my scanner isn't working-again. Happens everytime I unplug this machine. So far, I've made it work again by unplugging and replugging it in, for a while and, eventually, it starts to work again. A time to get off the computer and do something else, I guess.

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Does anyone remember the old club house at the Bryan Municipal golf course-the little lake with the nice dam? I wish they would build that back. I think I found a picture of one that was in Corsicana that looks something like it, but I'm not sure if I am remembering correctly.

I want to paint the little dam, with that nice clubhouse across the lake, at sunset. I always thought that this was such a nice place to go, as we drove by. At that time of day, we could see the men and ladies, going up the steps, dressed in their formals, going to a dance or event at the clubhouse.

I guess that, if I paint it at sunset, it won't matter a whole lot about what color it was, because it would be in shadow, with the sunset behind it. I seem to remember it as being kind of a light grayish brown brick, with wide steps going up to the second floor in front. I can't remember if that led to a terrace, or if that was covered.

The canvas is ready, have a couple of photos we took of the dam, but I can't find the ones we took when the water was running over the dam a few years ago.

I think I need a little different angle on the dam, though.

Another thing that I have been staring at for a while, and "studying on"! I about decided that it might work better to go sit there and paint on location. But... where would I sit? In the car wash across the street, in the middle of a busy street intersection? That's the place I am trying to paint it from. My photos are all a little too far over so I don't see part of the dam. And, of course, the clubhouse was torn down long ago and replaced with something that looks like a long, low garage for a lot of golf carts. I guess there are clubhouse facilities in there for golfers, too, but, since I don't have an interest in golf, I don't know what is there. It's set back off the street, so you can't see it very well.

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I missed the entry time for the Art Teachers show at the Art Center in College Station. It was Friday, I understand. I had a date of the 30th, but that was when the show opened. Maybe I'll have something ready for the Art League Members Show in June.

Go out to see the Art Teachers show at the Art Center in College Station. I'm sure that there is some very interesting work.

See my sidebar for more information, or check out the calendar on the Arts Council of the Brazos Valley website.

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Chuck Norris is receiving an award tonight at the George Bush Library in College Station. I surely would like to take Ashton to see it. He has been wanting to go to those things, but most things did not seem like something he would be interested in, lately. This one should be great for everyone to see.

We probably won't get to go. You have to get tickets at the MSC on campus, and it's very hard for us to get over there since we don't have a reason to go there. We would have to pay at the parking garage in order to have a place to park, and have to walk over to the MSC, and that is just too much for us. They did have tickets at the Eagle, but now they are saying to go to the MSC for tickets.

Wish Chuck Norris would give my grandsons some lessons!

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