Corinthian Chickens – Painting of the Week

In 1989, I started painting chickens. Using the extra space taped off at the top of the page, I warmed up practicing painting little chickens for the main painting. It was fun and suddenly they were all the way across like a border. Coming back to the subject, it became a series. First using chickens in borders, then boxes, and then eventually the boxes became architectural as in Corinthian Chickens. The birds were placed in windows between Corinthian columns and as statuesque supports. It was such a great experience.

Painting in a series is good for creativity. I prefer an “ongoing series” where you come back to explore another idea but don’t exclusively paint in a series. Series are a great way to build a body of work. Early in my career, I ruined every painting I put a tree in. So, I studied trees and had a whole show of them.  Today I return to my interest in flowers, architecture, domestic animals and lately landscape often exploring ideas learned from one subject to another.