Farm Rooster Trio

Farm Rooster Trio

10x10 Oil on Canvas Painting

by Cheri Wollenberg

As my blog states I am a visual artist and I make journal posts about my paintings.  It has been a long while since my last post here on Dancing Brush by Cheri.  It may seem strange, but I sometimes find it harder to write than paint. Composing my thoughts in an organized manner has never been my forte.   In this painting I used a photo that I had taken of our chickens and roosters.  Actually we had 5 roosters at the time.  The only hen in the painting is the white one.  I cropped the photo off to hone in on the three. There were several others around them, but I like the way the heads of these particular "poultry specimens" seemed to have different expressions as if they were "eyeing or sizing up" the viewer (me)!  I hope to cover my tardiness with more regular blog posts in the next weeks.   I'm gathering thoughts (lol).  This painting is in my Etsy store.  You may click the link  Farm Rooster Trio for more details if you are interested.  Thanks for coming by!

Mama Red Hen and Chicks - Farm Animal Painting

Mama Red Hen And Chicks

12x12 Oil on Canvas

Cheri Wollenberg

My husband and I have lived on farms all our married life except for a 10 year period that his work as a pastor took us to Fayetteville, Arkansas.  He was an agriculture teacher in Oklahoma and farmed full time, raised cattle and preached!  I taught art in school later after our children were in high school.  We have loved both our farm and teaching lives.   Now during the retirement years we still work at farming though on a very small scale.  Our newest venture in raising animals has been chickens!  LAUGH OUT LOUD!!!!! What fun we have had.  Knowing nothing we have raised enough chickens to have fresh eggs now for a couple of years.  Recently we decided to try our hand at chicks!!!  LAUGH OUT LOUD AGAIN!!!!  We started with four eggs because we don't want to have a population explosion.  The reason being is that we could never eat any chickens....only have fun with them and enjoy their wonderful produce.  So...out of the four "planned family" experience we have hatched two.  These two are in this painting.  I couldn't help but want to paint them.  They would not stay still long enough for me to get a good shot of them, so I had to improvise somewhat.  Enjoyed this venture.  Hopefully I can  post that we were successful in raising these little chicks to adulthood someday.  This painting's description and price are in my Etsy store.  Click Here.

Black Rooster Oil Painting

Black Rooster In Sunset

16x20x1.5 Original Oil Painting

Cheri Wollenberg

Circumstances have kept me from following through on my creative thoughts about new paintings during the last several months.  However, my mind never lets up!  I see paintings in almost every circumstance and event daily!  I live in a rural part of central Oklahoma.  It has been terribly hot with hot, forceful winds parching the earth's soil and foliage during the last couple of weeks.  The grasshoppers are having a hayday.....that is, until we let our new chickens out to graze!(lol).  Recently I was with my husband as we let our lovely poultry crew out to graze.  I had to run back to the house to get my camera.  It was so hot, but those birds love chasing the grasshoppers.  I took loads of photos and this young rooster perked his head up once...beautiful black against the sundown sky.  It was really magnificent!  I painted him as soon as I could.  The painting does not do him or the sunset justice, but it was a delight to do:)  He is listed and for sale in my Etsy store. Just click. 

Rooster Painting II for May 2014

Mr Brilliant

16x20 Original Oil on Canvas

Cheri Wollenberg

Mr. Brilliant is a fluffy rooster with yellow, black and white, brown and gold feathers.  I took pictures of him and five others recently along with the prettiest hens and baby chicks.  They were ranging in a yard at a nearby home.  It was so much fun to see them scramble around as we drove up to the fence.  My husband feeds our hens and rooster a snack everyday.  I think these must have that little snack provided by their master too.  As we got out of our vehicle to take the pictures they all started running to the fence as if they were anticipating something or someone.  When they found out that were only there to admire them, they waddled off in the high grass.  So cute to see their feathered behinds running away from us.  This painting is one of several I have finished this month.  You can find it by clicking this link.

Gene's Ducks

Gene's Ducks

6x6 Oil on Canvas

Cheri Wollenberg

(SOLD)

When my husband and I moved back to Oklahoma we decided to do some things that we had never tried before....sort of a bucket list!  We always raised cattle on our farms before the ministry called us far away from our farm home in southwest Oklahoma.  So, cattle are not new to us; however, considering some things we thought we would do after moving back to our roots was our decision to raise a few chickens.  I cannot tell anyone enough about this "trip".  We have had some hilarious moments.  We have a neighbor...a bachelor friend...who also raises some chickens....Gene.  He has a beautiful variety of breeds of chickens and roosters.  One day when we visited him I took lots of pictures of roosters, chickens and these wonderful ducks.  Did you know that they will not pose for photographs (lol)!?  I kept following them all over the place.  It was such great fun and I managed to get a few photos to paint. This little painting was one of them.  I placed it in my Etsy store and it disappeared very quickly......Someone else is experiencing the same love for those cute little white ducks as I did.......I would love to invite you to my new Website and Gallery.   

Farm Fresh Eggs and Pitcher Farmhouse Chic Painting

Farm Fresh Eggs and Pitcher

6x6x1 Oil on Canvas

by

Cheri Wollenberg

After the first of the year I plan to post about our new venture in raising chickens.  Oh my goodness, have we ever had fun doing this!  We have observed our crazy little hens do some of the funniest things and we are so proud of them because they give us good eggs to eat:)  We love eating them and I enjoyed painting these.  This little daily painting is listed in my Etsy shop.  You can follow this link if you are interested in purchasing it.

Floral Paintings

Red Tulip Painting

6x6 Oil on Canvas

by

Cheri Wollenberg

White Tulip Painting

6x8 Oil on Canvas

by

Cheri Wollenberg

Haven't had much time to post about my paintings lately.  Here are two little floral paintings that I've decided to use as some of the first of floral daily paintings.  I love this time of the year even if the weather has an "attitude".  In Oklahoma we enjoy nice warm days a lot in February, but the cold North wind doesn't play any favorites and the wind certainly "comes sweepling down the plain" (laugh).  We are planning to raise some chickens in our retirement so I better get these florals out of my system before the chicks come along to inspire my paintings.  Both of these little paintings can be found in my Etsy shop.  Just follow the colored link under the paintings:)

Rooster - Rooster Painting

Rooster 6

12x12 Original Oil on Canvas

by

Cheri Wollenberg

It won't be long until my husband and I will be moving to our farm home.  I mentioned in an earlier post (June 14)  that my grandson and I had talked about raising some chickens.  He has not forgot!!!  Thinking about chickens again caused me to remember a painting that I did of a rooster.  I never was very happy with the results.  The compostion was not right for the support size.  So this is what I did to this fellow....  I cropped him on the canvas, took my exacto knife and did a little "surgery".  He was painted originally on a 16x20 stretched canvas.  I cropped and cut a 12x12 image from it and I'm much happier now.  The composition reads better.   I glued the painted canvas to a heavy foamboard with archival glue and framed him.  He is in my Etsy shop.  You can see two views...one of him and one of him framed.   Have a look at him.  He is a very welcoming fellow:)

Eggs II

Eggs II

6x8 Original Oil on Canvas

by

Cheri Wollenberg

I've wondered the last several days how creative an artist could be in painting eggs.  I think since I seem to be consumed with this topic and chickens lately, I'll explore it a little bit.  These eggs certainly tasted good.  They were supposed to be laid by cage-free hens.  They are a pretty golden brown color and I enjoyed painting them.  It makes a nice subject for a daily painting....lots of practice and just plain fun!  This painting is listed in my Etsy store.  You may take a look at it by clicking Eggs II.

Miss Hen and Eggs - Two Paintings That Go Together

Miss Hen

8x10 Oil on Canvas

by

Cheri Wollenberg

As I get older I have this crazy desire to do things I never did before.  It may be the "bucket" thing....I don't know.  My husband and I will be moving back to a farm home in the near future, and I have decided that I would like to have a couple of hens.  There are several reasons for this.....I think it would be nice to have fresh eggs; I think chickens are  fun subjects to paint; and, I have a little farmer grandson who get's really "wide-eyed" when he thinks he is fixing to embark on a new venture.  We have raised cattle, lambs, pigs, and crops, but never chickens!  At one time of my life raising chickens would have been the last thing I ever wanted to do.  My grandmother had them and when we grandchildren went barefooted in the summertime.........well, you know the rest!  Anyway, I'll probably extend this post at another time and write about some of my previous experiences with roosters and chickens, but today....I wanted to post two related daily paintings that I finished a couple of weeks ago.  The hen above and the eggs below can be seen on etsy if one would be interested in buying them.  I enjoyed painting both of them.

Egg and Broken Shell

6x6 Oil on Canvas

by

Cheri Wollenberg