Wednesday is the New Saturday
So, my work schedule is slightly amended: I don’t go in at all on Wednesdays. This means sleeping late and (I’ve decided) painting. You know, like art.
I am determined to get some work in at least one show this year.
That shouldn’t be too tough, considering I’ve just joined an amateur art society with a requirement to show two pieces in their annual. That is, the judging shouldn’t be tough. I still have to paint some shit.
When I first moved here, surrounded as I am by sheep, I thought they’d be a natural. Turns out, they’re really fun to draw and harder’n hell to paint.
It’s the fleece. Use cool colors (blues) and they look dead, use warm colors (browns) and they look dirty.
So, chickens it is!
I don’t suppose I can make a whole career out of chicken painting. I’m discovering they only have one facial expression — pent-up rage. Seriously, chickens have the most awful ‘resting bitch faces.’ It’s the downturned beak. And the glarey eyes.
Chicken painter. Sixteen-year-old me would be so humiliated.
Posted: March 1st, 2017 under animals, art.
Comments: 16
Comments
Comment from Armybrat
Time: March 1, 2017, 10:56 pm
I have every Wed off. It makes for The. Best. Schedule. Work 2 days, have a day off, work 2 days, have 2 days off. I don’t paint chicken pictures on my Wed off. The hubby and I use it to do the mundane things in life, like grocery shop. We also use it to do the non-mundane things in life, like see a new exhibit at one of the museums, try out a new restaurant or, when the weather is glorious, engage in a drink crawl of the restaurants with patios along the waterfront, the North End or the BackBay.
Comment from ExpressoBold
Time: March 1, 2017, 10:59 pm
@ S. Weasel,
Why don’t you branch out to scathing animal comparisons to politicians. Here’s one you can start with:
~
https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7489/15539516457_8b8f068a0a_o.png
Comment from S. Weasel
Time: March 1, 2017, 11:06 pm
That’s my schedule now too, ArmyBrat. I love it. And my Fridays are a bit short and punctuated by coffee at a local (16th C) coffee house with the locals.
Comment from Feynmangroupie
Time: March 1, 2017, 11:22 pm
You could always turn them into chicken gods staring wrathfully down at their minions…The nine circles of chicken hell, chicken Cthulhu about to destroy a village, or chickens tormenting foxes and badgers. (No offense meant Uncle B)
Comment from Uncle Al
Time: March 2, 2017, 12:32 am
There’s also the odd stuff that turns up when you examine the mundane more closely than customary. Here‘s a recognizable example. This one’s closer but it’s still clear what it is. Then there’s the really strange things you see in images from scanning electron microscopes, such as this one of a pheasant eggshell (from image #21 in this livescience series).
There are endless possibilities if you use your imagination about where to look at things from. Then paint away!
But be careful or you’ll end up in Gahan Wilson territory!
Comment from Steve Skubinna
Time: March 2, 2017, 12:38 am
I like the chicken idea, and fully endorse you carving out the niche of Mistress of Chicken Rage.
So far as I know, it’s all open to you, and you alone.
Comment from Ric Fan
Time: March 2, 2017, 12:50 am
People love chickens. Why not paint your house?
Comment from Pupster
Time: March 2, 2017, 1:19 am
Paint Your Weasel would be a pretty good band name.
Comment from Uncle Al
Time: March 2, 2017, 2:23 am
@Pupster – Yes, that’d be a good band name.
Irrelevant aside: I compare any good band names I hear to my all time favorite, and after many years it is still on top of the heap. A long time back, in Durham NC, a fellow I know was the sound man for Sorry About Dresden.
Comment from Steamboat McGoo
Time: March 2, 2017, 8:36 am
Stoaty – You touched on what could possibly be your niche!
Paint chickens with realistic (or surreal, or whatever) “alternate” expressions.
You mentioned “rage” – how ’bout real Jack-The-Ripper Homicidal Rage?
Or a “contemplative” chicken? Bemused? Confused? Skeptical? Drunk? Stoned?
Or – my favorite – the sheer ecstasy of egg-laying.
Comment from Deborah HH
Time: March 2, 2017, 12:44 pm
I expect few of us are who/what/where we thought we’d be when we were sixteen 🙂
Comment from LesterIII
Time: March 2, 2017, 2:59 pm
I agree, Deborah.
I heard “You’ll be dead or in jail by the time you’re 25!” so many times I began taking it as a dare. Lived life, made mistakes, moved forward.
Looking back, I’m shocked that I wasn’t. Had more fun than I deserved getting to this point of being shocked. Nostalgia, it ain’t what it used to be.
I need to art more often. I blew off an art-school scholarship to join the Marine Corps. Suffice to say professional academia and I didn’t exactly get along. But Stoaty, the thought of capturing Chicken Rage in media has awoken some slumbering creature in my brain. I’ve never been a renderer, nor will I ever be. But that itch to translate the chaos roiling in *that* part of my brain onto/into something tangible is screaming to be scratched.
I sincerely thank you, and all of you here, for contributing to this epiphany. I mean it, not shitting you. Thanks.
Side note: Fritz, when next you visit The Estate, the interior view should be more interesting!
Comment from thefritz
Time: March 2, 2017, 4:15 pm
Anything would beat the ‘old’ place Lester! You should invite all of Swease’s imaginary internet friends over for a tour and a toddy…
Comment from Deborah HH
Time: March 2, 2017, 8:59 pm
Mincing Mockingbird has a charmingly macabre take on ornithology. I want one of everything.
Comment from Veeshir
Time: March 2, 2017, 9:59 pm
Why not paint weasels?
You seem to have some ability in that regard.
Comment from S. Weasel
Time: March 2, 2017, 10:40 pm
It’s down to source material, Veeshir. I don’t have any locally to observe.
I mean, yes, I use photo reference. Not many eschew photos altogether these days. But a) I prefer to use my own photos and b) even then, I’m very careful about them. If I find myself just copying photos, it’s just…it’s just not good. I like to have at least a few different photos and a pose that’s not exactly any of them.
I’m talking fine art, obviously. For the blog, it’s Liberty Hall and I have great fun knicking other people’s photos and scribbling on them.
Good luck to you, Lester!
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