Brown Black Tailed Rooster Painting By Cheri Wollenberg

Rooster Painting II

10x10 Wrap Around Canvas

Original Oil  Painting by Cheri Wollenberg

Roosters are beautiful creatures.  However, some of them have angry or mean dispositions!  Growing up in central Oklahoma both sets of my grandparents raised chickens.  The chicken yards were especially inviting to us children.  Both my mother and father were from large families so there were many grandchildren belonging to both sets of grandparents.  As an older adult I realize now that lots of little kids hanging around chicken yards would more than likely agitate roosters trying to protect their chickens and brood.  All this to say, we were warned that roosters could flog or attack us smaller human beings (LOL).  My husband and I had a few roosters when we lived on our country place.  I managed to photograph all of them at one time or other to paint.  In the next several days I plan to feature my rooster paintings on my blog.  Have a look at them.  Hope you enjoy them as much as I did painting them. 

Click the link in "blue" above for more info.

Rooster for March

March Rooster

12x12 Oil on Canvas

Cheri Wollenberg

 

The painting today features a rooster that we raised.  He was such an even tempered and friendly rooster when he was younger.  He was one of four roosters we obtained last spring.  We decided to keep him because he seems to easy going!  However, growing up and becoming the only rooster with five hens, his personality has changed.  I don't know if it is the winter months and not getting to graze freely as much as usual, guarding his hens,  or maybe he has gotten really conceited because he is so beautiful (ha!).   Whatever the reason, I'm so afraid that he may have to leave.  After two episodes trying to attack my husband during feeding time, he may not get to remain as the protector of those hens (lol)!  So, I have been getting lots of images of him so that I can paint him whenever I like.  I listed one on Etsy today.  You can follow this link by clicking "see" to find out more about him.  Thanks for dropping by.

February Rooster Painting by Cheri Wollenberg

February Rooster 2015

16x20 Oil on Canvas

Cheri Wollenberg

I've painted this rooster several times.  He was one of five roosters we raised last year.  We raised ten chicks and thought we had some hens as we fed and loved those silly chickens (lol).  To make a long story short, he is the only one left of the five roosters.  We finally had to choose one to keep!  It was a hard decision to make because all of them were unusually beautiful and different in color.  I have photographed this guy so many times from his youth.  He is a very proud and "fussy" rooster.  In fact, if he doesn't start behaving better he may end up leaving the chicken house against his will.  He is very protective of our five hens.  His cape is a little more golden than I have painted it in this head shot, but this will not be only time I delight in painting him.  He is a fabulous subject.  He is listed in my Etsy store in three different paintings.  Each one of them shows him in a different stage of his short life.  Click here to investigate:)

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.

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:)

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