A Day in the Life...

"Siberian Iris" 11 x 14 oil on canvas
If you are wondering what a day in the life of an artist is like...my list for today was pretty typical. The entire morning was spent at the theater. (Well, okay, I can't say it's typical for me--as I am fairly new to set painting.) Three hours later...faux bricks, faux timbers, cracks in faux plaster walls...By twelve I was famished and called it quits for the morning. Then home to eat a quick lunch and throw the makings of beef stew in the crock pot.
The afternoon in the studio went something like this...place some online orders for printed materials to take advantage of Cyber Monday deals, cut mats for a watercolor house portrait (yes, that's house, not horse), and another watercolor. Put a coat of gesso on a new painting panel, scan a section of a painting that I am still tweaking, after I already scanned the whole thing in eight pieces and knitted it together in Photoshop. Now I was still not happy with one of the horse's eyes, and have reworked it again, only to have to wait for it to dry before re-scanning. Attempt to cut stencils for a faux stone wall on the theater set, only to decide that I'll be better off free-hand painting the stonework. Paint the edges of a deeply cradled gessoboard painting of a chick. Put wire hangers on a couple of finished framed pieces. Decide which pieces of art to take to the RISD Holiday Alumni Art Sale, which is just under two weeks away.
Last on the list is to update the blog. New work has been slow in coming with the theater set work taking up much of my time. Several new works in progress, including the horse with the troublesome eye are taking longer than usual to get to the digitization stage. The Siberian Iris, above, is one of those that sort of fell through the cracks lately. The piece was finished and framed a couple of months ago, when I realized I had never digitized it, and had to take it out of the frame to do so. This is another in the series of flower studies that I will be exhibiting in the spring. So work gets done, eventually, sometimes in fits and starts. Keep an eye out for the latest horse painting...I think I have finally fixed that eye.

"Columbian Wyandotte Hen", oil on 2" deep cradled gessoboard, 8 x 8 in. $200. Here is the little hen painting I wanted to post last week. She is one of the new flock of four Wyandotte hens we started this spring. She was supposed to be a silver-laced Wyandotte, but apparently some mix-up at the hatchery resulted in us being sent Columbian Wyandottes instead. Research revealed that this breed was named for the World Columbian Exposition of 1893, also known as the Chicago World's Fair. They have the patterning of a Brahma, without the leg feathers. This hen is either Georgia or Rosa, but since I honestly can't tell the two apart, we don't call them by their names.

The other two hens are Golden-laced Wyandottes, and I have yet to do a painting of one of those as an adult hen. The lacy feathers are beautiful, but will be a challenge to paint.