Saturday, July 12, 2008

I Brought a Chicken Home!

I went to Virginia Vaughan's Chicken Clinic today. It was great! I really enjoyed it. Virginia is a great teacher and artist.

We painted her infamous rooster in her impressionist style. It wasn't so much to learn how to paint a proper chicken but how to paint with oils, how they work, and most of all, learning how to loosen up. We used a very limited palette of Titanium White, Ultramarine Blue, Alizarin Crimson, and Cadmium Yellow Light.

We all followed her step-by-step instructions, painting along with her and came away with these plucky, colorful chickens, each with their own personality. Here is mine - it is 9 x 12:












And here is Virginia's. I think it was 8 x10:












I have to admit it was a fun way to learn about painting with oils. We also got to work from one of our own photographs. Here is my landscape I did. It is 12 x 9.

In the days to come, I'm hoping to apply what I have learned so that I can paint and develop my own particular style with oils.
Thanks Virginia for my introduction to painting with oils!

4 comments:

Dianne Mize said...

Good chicken! That's an excellent way to get folks introduced to oil. And that you came home after one lesson excited about oils says volumes. Good looking landscape, too. I think there's no question you've got a knack for oils, so happy painting!

Karen Hargett said...

Ha! Dianne thank you so much. It was fun. I still have so much to learn - don't know if I've got a "knack for oils" but I certainly want to learn more. Your beautiful paintings are inspirational and your blogs are already a great resource for me - I read them often trying to soak up some of your knowledge about painting. Thanks for sharing.

V....Vaughan said...

Ah! A good report about the chicken clinic!
Thank you for the nice comments! Your enthusiasm (and your "chicken") is INSPIRING!
Keep up the good work, Karen...this is a GREAT blog!

Karen Hargett said...

Thanks Virigina! You definitely deserve many more nice comments. The clinic was so much fun and so informative. I'm glad you stopped by!