March 18 work in progress

First of all, American Idol... I am aghast.

In other news, I finished painting today!! (Happy dance!!!) I still need to varnish them, but the subject matter is all painted, woo hoo!!! I did rearrange the order a little. There had ended up being some unintentional groupings of bird colors and I did not like that. I will scan them individually and post them all next week.


Next up: Chicken drawing! Dog scrim! And there's a knife on the way that I'm going to scrim on spec. Not the one I mentioned a few weeks ago, that apparently didn't pan out.

February 18 work in progress and other things

Okay, first things first I finished painting all the backgrounds today, which was tedious beyond belief. Of the metallic paints I chose, I'd have to say that "rich espresso" is my favorite because it covers in *only* three coats. That seems like lot unless you've been dealing with having to put on six coats! Yes, it's the small things in life...

Anyway here they are, and this should give you inquisitive minds a better idea of what breeds we're lookin at here. Next up I will obviously be painting the chickens.

I had to be up at 4:45am this morning, not exactly my prime time. I did what I needed to do and was back home just after 7am, and this isn't a part of the day I normally experience so I loaded up The Beast (the big Nikon) and headed down to the Cosumnes preserve to see what sorts of wildlife I could rustle up. I have to wonder if newer lenses would give me sharper pictures at maximum zoom, but I love that camera nonetheless.

American Coot:

Black-Necked Stilt:

Northern Harrier:



Northern Pintail:

Ring-necked Duck:

Red-winged Blackbird:

Poultry Plaques

I have completed all the plaques I have time to do before DHC. All will be for sale at the show, and for sale on the website later if they don't sell next week. The oil pastel horses are still drying (please hurry!!!) but here are the new poultry images:


"Sebright #1"
4-7/8 by 6-7/8 inches
acrylic and gold metallic ink on wood


"Runner Duck #1"
6-3/4 by 9-1/2 inches
acrylic on wood


"Hamburg #1"
6-1/2 by 9-1/4 inches
acrylic and silver metallic ink on wood

New Hampshire

Another chicken plaque!


"New Hampshire #1" 6.75 x 9.5" mixed media (acrylic, ink, metallic gold ink on wood, imprinted chicken wire background which is hard to see except in person) For sale.

Another One

"Minorca #1" Mixed Media (acrylic & India ink on wood, carved lines). ~6.75 x 9.5 inches. For sale.

New Image

I have an art show coming up in less than a month (Draft Horse Classic) which means it's time to start stressing out about it already. I really need to make some new stuff so it's not all the same as last year, but I don't have a whole lot of time for that (nothing big...) so I am working on making some paintings/mixed media images. I still say "I am not a painter" but I guess it won't hurt me to pick up a paint brush every now and then. Heck, maybe I'll even start saying "yeah, I'm a painter too." Somehow being called a "drawer" doesn't have a very romantic ring to it...

Anyway, I was going to do a bunch of horse paintings, since it is a horse show, but I've got this reputation as "the chicken lady" anyway so I might as well just go with it. Chickens are fun. You'd think I would be sick and tired of chicken art but I'm really not. These are a good break from the rigidity of making PERFECT chickens. These are lighthearted, not realistic, not perfect, not even necessarily "standard." Definitely going to be some artistic license going on... Here I am talking like I've made a bunch. Pshaw. I did one today. I have a bunch more wood plaques and plan to do a series of chickens and horses over the next few weeks.


This is "Modern Game Bantam #1" That is a female Birchen Modern Game Bantam. There may or may not end up being more Modern Games but just to be on the safe side I'll go ahead and number it. This is done with acrylic paint, metallic silver pen (looks much cooler in real life) and sharpie pen on a wood plaque. It's 5x7 inches, and will be for sale at the DHC unless it's sold before then, which I certainly wouldn't argue with. Contact me for more info. And on a side note, Mom says the background is ugly, but personally I think it looks pretty good! I don't use bright colors too often...gotta mix it up from time to time... ;-)