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This little painting began with play, using gouache on paper. I had so much fun with the whimsy, that I decided to do a version in oil.

These photos include a couple of process shots as well as the reference photo. In my reference photo, Mr. Cock of the Walk was running straight forward. However, his comb and wattle were perfectly balanced for a nice contrapposto effect, so I decided to emphasize that in the sketch. I also wanted his tail feathers to reflect that counterpoise, so I exaggerated their lean.

I sketched the figure in ivory black. After getting the figure on the panel like I thought I wanted it, I began adding color to the body, focusing on the white saddle, hackle, and tail feathers and barred black feathers of the under body, plus the red wattle and comb. 

As I began to lay in the black for the background, I decided that his tail feathers would better complete the contrapposto effect if I turned them to the right, placing them in the upper right corner of the composition. So I wiped and restated the tail feathers.

Until this point, I had used only cadmium red, ivory black, and titanium white. Adding a touch of black to the red gave me the darker values I needed in the comb. In other parts of the comb and wattle, I used combinations of cadmium red and yellow ochre, cadmium red and white, as well as pure cadmium red.

I used yellow ochre, with white as needed, for his beak and his feet. I also decided to exaggerate the turn of his forward foot.

One of my goals was to limit the palette to those colors. However, I decided that his monocle should be gold instead of black as I had done in my original gouache sketch. I thought using gold there would help to balance all the black in the figure and background. I couldn't quite get the rich gold I needed, using only yellow ochre. So I added a touch of Indian yellow to give it a richer gold. Indian yellow also helped to brighten his beady little eye.

I also decided some loose, quick strokes of white in the black background would help to add movement, so voila! And he's doing the schottische!

Thanks for reading! Thanks for looking!

With a combination of joy, gratitude, and a touch of sadness, I sent one of my favorite paintings home with a collector yesterday. Does anyone else feel a touch of sadness when sending off a beloved creation? Potato Harvest has a new home.

When I was just learning to paint, I painted a still life of eggs from my happy hens. I shared the painting to an on-line critique site, and one of the members good-naturedly told me the eggs looked like potatoes. Since then, I continue to refine my egg paintings!  And I've used a portion of my potato harvest from my vegetable garden to practice my potato paintings. 

In the still life set-up for the painting, I incorporated an old broken-down cabinet with interesting hinges, crocks which my mother-in-law had used in her ceramics studio, a plaid kitchen towel, and--of course--potatoes. I wanted soft, muted colors, but I also wanted streams of light on the crocks to point to the potatoes. So I practiced with my still life at various times of day with various additional light sources.

Potato Harvest was juried into The Art of Gastronomy II at the Healdsburg Center for the Arts in Healdsburg, CA, along with two other paintings with food themes. Thrilled with the acceptance, I decided that I should fly to California for the opening reception of the exhibition. So Mother, my sister-in-law, and I played tourists in wine country for a few days. It was my first trip to California and Mother's first time to fly. What a wonderful weekend!

Potato Harvest returned to Tennessee after the exhibition. It is a well-traveled painting, and I am grateful to Elizabeth for giving it a new home.