Repetition and Roosters

Working with Interesting Compositions

as yet untitled, 20x 24

I am working on cropping and more interesting compositions on my latest rooster collages. I have decided that in these next few I will not worry about showing all of the traditional rooster tail feathers, but rather will crop in closer and make the heads larger than life. This will require more attention to the rooster waddle and comb and especially the eyes, which I have found to have just as much character (if not more) than the tail feathers.

Repetition and Roosters

Finding New Ways to do the Same Thing

as yet untitled, 20x24

It's a challenge with each rooster collage, trying to utilize different papers and textures to create not only the effect of feathers, but especially the waddle and comb!  I am running out of my hand tinted and mono printed red sheets and so today I have resolved that I will have to bring out the glass and the paints and make more red papers for the waddle and comb. Adding this to the challenge of no more black art papers, we are in for some creative solutions to our feathered friends in the next couple of collages. Bring it on!

Foul Friends, 20 x 20 (top)

Sittin' Pretty 20 x 20 (bottom)

Working in a Series

What's Next?

Des Jambes de Coq, 20 x 24

I am currently have another eight rooster collages planned. I have them sketched out and under-painted. They are all the same size, 20x24 or 24 x 20. I did them this way so that they would hang well together, as a series. I have found a resource for hand-made weathered barn wood frames, and all of the roosters are framed this way.

Right about the time of the roosters, I was also asked to do cows, if you remember the Cows at COMMA blog entry. I think the cows (I created two cows) and the roosters have started me out on a barnyard connection. Just yesterday I was asked if I would consider doing a commission piece of Alpacas! This request was a direct result of the rooster series. 

There is something to be said for creating a body of work in a series. There are benefits to repetition, practicing and learning how to best represent your subject matter. Now that I have eight more roosters ready to go, the last one should be a masterpiece! Stay tuned...

Practice, Practice

Early to Rise, 24x24

I am not tired of doing roosters, and I thought I would be! I have just completed a series of six roosters, and I am finding that the more I do them, the better I am becoming at creating what had intrigued me from the very beginning, the feathers! Each rooster collage is entirely unique to me, I take what I have learned from the last one and apply it to the next. The series is helping me to become more creative in my solutions, as I want each rooster's feathers to be different from the last.

I asked my sister, who speaks French, to help me name my series of six roosters with French sayings and titles. I wanted to have a cohesive series of titles to go along with my series of feathered friends. Aimée came up with some great titles for me, now I just need to get her to help me pronounce them! I sent her images of the six roosters, and she said "These are beautiful! The French would be so proud. I see so many colors that are unexpected and yet work so well." 

Working in a Series

The Benefits of Repetition

Du Coq a l'Ane, 20x24

Developing a series of art around one motif seems as if it would become redundant. I thought this myself when I was asked by Katharine Butler Gallery to delive six rooster paintings next month for my first month as a gallery artist with them. Katharine was taken by the roosters on my website, and wanted to see more. 

The Barnyard Connection

I had not intended to create a series of roosters! I decided to do one piece with roosters because I thought that the colorful feathers would be a great subject matter for my collage medium. My friend Champ (who also happens to have been my high school art teacher and mentor) is a photographer and lives in Western Massachusetts where I grew up. I know she loves to get out and take photos at places like Old Sturbridge Village, (which is one of those places we took field trips to in grade school but never really appreciated)!

I asked Champ if she had any good photos of roosters, and of course, she did. I combined a couple of her roosters in photoshop and added my own background, (a little insight into my process). As soon as I finished this piece, it sold. So, I said to myself, there is something here!

I followed my original two-rooster piece with a few smaller collages which feature one or two roosters each, you can view them on my website gallery. These roosters are now available at the Grand Bohemian Gallery

Rooster Rally

SCC Demo Rooster is Complete!

Here is the piece I was working on at the SCC demo. I wanted to post it in case any of the students were interested in the final piece since they got to see me start it last week. This is one of many roosters I am creating for the Katharine Butler Gallery in Sarasota.

I talked about transitioning the painted bottom half to the papered top half with the students and you can see that I used lots of small pieces of the brown paper with gold squares on it to make this transition. I carried that through the middle of the rooster with lots of small pieces of torn book pages that create the spotty feather effect. I like the way there is now a speckled strip across the middle of the piece. The yellow/brown color represents grass.

The top area was tricky because it is supposed to be like blue sky dappled through the trees. It can't be clear and in focus or it would compete with our feathered friend, however it's hard to get a feeling of blurred focus with torn paper! I tried to keep that area from competing with the rooster by not bringing it all the way down to meet his top edge.

So there you have it! While poking around online trying to find witty names for my rooster series, I learned a few things. Did you know that a castrated rooster is called a capon? As a result of this procedure certain male physical characteristic will develop, but stunted: 

• The comb and wattles cease growing after castration, so the head of the capon looks small.
  
• The hackle, tail and saddle feathers grow unusually long.
• In China, the Yangbi Huang breed can grow to be the largest rooster in the Asian continent, up to 35cm long. This is thought to be caused by the castration of the roosters practised by farmers in Northern China, which affects the hormonal balance.

Source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rooster

You learn something new every day!