LONG'S PARK ROOSTER

Maybe it's the arrival of spring. I'm not sure but I painted another rooster. This one was a rescued rooster who soon became a resident at Long's Park in Lancaster, PA.

"Long's Park Rooster" oil on board, (11" x 14") 2016

GENTLE HEN

"Gentle Hen" oil on board, (8" x 8") 2016

Spring is in the air and I have chickens on my mind.  I like this quiet hen who appears to be carefully preening herself in the sunshine. I looked in my sketchbooks of hen drawings and she was there on the page in a quick dash of lines. So I did this little oil painting of her.

A Rooster Named Jackson

"Jackson Squared" oil on panel (12" x 12") 2016

Jackson was an authentic  flesh and feather rooster who I met on a hot July day at Clark's Elioak Farm in Howard County, MD. Martha Clark who owns the farm  and Enchanted Forest Museum, has a petting area where young and old patrons can see and touch most of the domestic livestock. I've continued to paint Jackson over the years. In fact he was in my first paintings of 2016.   A magnificent and very vain cock of the barnyard, he proudly took charge of his flock. We got along well because I flattered him with buttery soft words that he wanted to hear.
"Jackson, you are such a handsome man, please stand over here in the light where I can see you better," the suspicious hens would overhear me saying to him.

"Jackson Puffy and Square" oil on panel (16" x 16") 2016

In time he would come close, but not too close, and lay on his side so that he could spread his wings and show me his splendid plumage. His flirtatiousness took me quite by surprise but I snapped photos of him in that position and he loved it. One day I might share them here with everyone.
I don't know if Jackson is still strutting around his rural kingdom, but where ever he is, he will be forever remembered in oil paint many times over.
So I want to share with you the two most recent paintings of him. Here are they are still on the easel as they dry.