Chickadee and Chicks

I'm still plugging away with my watercolors and I have a couple to share that are at least recognizable. On September 8th we went to Meyer's Hatchery in Polk, OH. to pick up six tiny chicks. They are the cutest things ever and Gena and I have been spending as much time as possible with them so they will not only be good egg layers but also good friends. The new additions to our family are Maggie, Debi(both named after high school classmates), Amelia, Susy(named after my junior high German teacher), Harriet and Cuddles.

This painting was my third attempt and although it has a lot of flaws I'm happy with it. I painted this from one of my photos....no way I can sketch constantly moving chicks! Amelia, as in Amelia Earhart, is the yellow chick and was so named because she was trying to fly since she was a day old. Amelia is a Blue Ameracana, which is considered a rare breed. Susie is a Barred Rock and although she was named after my German teacher, her name also pays tribute to a Polish hen my grandfather had that he named Susie. When I went to "the farm" she followed me everywhere, including the rowboat that was on the edge of the pond.

The second painting is of a chickadee, one of my favorite birds. This was also sketched and painted from one of my photographs. Shortly after I completed this, a chickadee, for the first time ever, ate sunflower seeds from my hand and a couple days later it also ate from Gena's hand. What a neat experience!

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Two Birds in the Hand

September has been quite a month on our 12 acres. Within less than two weeks I had rescued a budgie(parakeet) and a rogue rooster. I first spotted the budgie one evening as we were shutting up the chickens. He was sitting on a bush in our backyard. My first reaction was "rare bird" but I soon calmed down after looking at the yellow blob with binoculars. Definitely a budgie. I tried to capture him that evening but he flew off to the top of a very large willow tree. Over the next couple of days we spotted him off and on under the bird feeder but he always flew off with the wild birds every time we walked out the back door. About 3 days later, on our wedding anniversary, I saw him sitting on our chainlink fence all by himself...no other birds around. I grabbed some bird seed and slowly walked over to him, fully expecting him to fly away. He didn't. He let me put my seed-filled hand in front of him and he started to eat the food. While he was eating, I carefully brought up...

Simple Watercolor Sketches

Sketching and painting from my photos hasn't been going well lately so after disgustedly throwing another one in the waste basket I decided to try sketching without any reference material. I figure I'm almost 60 years old so there should there be something floating around in my head that I can pull out. The first one I sketched was this Teddy bear sitting on a rug drinking a beer and eating snacks. I went to bed thoroughly bummed out after spending the evening trying to sketch an animal from one of my photos . While I was swearing I would never try this crazy stuff again I picked up my sketchpad to do who knows what. I had no reference photo and I wasn't interested in drawing a blob of fur from one of our two dogs who were already curled up in a ball and fast asleep. In around 15 minutes I had drawn this very simple Teddy bear and the following morning I added the watercolor which really made it pop. Is it perfect?...not by a long shot. Teddy lo...

A Day in the Coop

I wrote this in a notebook while "babysitting" in the chicken coop on Friday 10/2/15. I'm sitting on the bottom roosting pole in the chicken coop surrounded by six curious, lively baby chicks and one cranky older hen that Robin calls "Godzilla." She's giving them the "evil eye" while scratching and digging in the bedding and tossing it around, trying to scare them. Today, they seem less frightened by her, although they are still wary and scatter if she approaches too close. They're trying to scratch in the shavings just like big chickens; some of them are even flapping up in an attempt to perch on the roosting poles. They're a little shaky, but they'll catch on. We've been watching the babies, trying to sort out individual personalities so we could give them names. Some of them were easy: Amelia Earhart--the blue Ameracauna who was trying to fly at the age of one day, and Maggie--the other blue Ameracauna, a real sweetie who k...

Robin Arnold Art

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