The Poultry Pageant

 

Acrylic, 10x20 inch on a wide cradled canvas.  

I've been laid up with a bug for over 3 weeks while the painting waited impatiently to be completed.  The canvas sat around in my studio for several years waiting for the perfect subject matter.  Seems I'm stuck on birds lately having painted three different crow paintings in a row.  I love birds and have made our yard bird friendly in order to watch their antics along with the squirrels.  A photo reference from pixabay.com inspired me for this piece but needed some editing to fit the canvas and work out other issues.  I edited the photo quite a bit pumping up the colors, adding the fun decorative details like stripes and checkers.  One of the end chickens faced looking out of the picture, flipping it to face the other chickens made a better composition. 

Deborah Ann Kirkeeide ©

The Evolution Of An Abstract In 4 Stages

 

This is #4 the final of a recently completed abstract that took over a year before it felt done.  The other stages are posted below.  It was painted on a 16x12 inch deep cradled canvas found lying about in my studio and using professional acrylic paint.  I had no plans just decided to slap paint around and work on it between projects using left over paint.  You can see below that the painting started out very different in the beginning (#1 below) and very little of the original remained in the final.  The first two stages were worked with brushes, the last two stages I brought out the palette knives and reworked.  The palette knives gave it life as I tend to get putsy with brushes.  Click on the images to enlarge.  Also it started out horizontal, during the process it was turned multiple times until it ended vertical.

Deborah Ann Kirkeeide ©

The Gift

 

Click Here For More Info:  8x8 inches, acrylic on canvas panel

Crow #4.  I painted this piece without the ribbon and felt something was missing.  Doing a little research I discovered some interesting stories about crows sometimes leaving gifts for people who feed them.  Although those gifts are probably more like rocks or shells the ribbon made a better composition especially with the addition of the red.  And who knows crows are fascinating creatures who can surprise us, even with a red ribbon.

Deborah Ann Kirkeeide ©

The Guest

 

Click Here For More Info:  8x10 inches, acrylic on a cradled panel (Da Vinci pro panel)

Crow painting #3.  Using a palette knife is new for me, the process and textures are amazing.  Also it was a lot of fun experimenting with the background colors on this piece, just doing whatever in the moment.  Even though crows seem to be basically black there is much more color in their feathers than you think.

Deborah Ann Kirkeeide ©

Country Road

 

Click Here For More Info:  $135, 8x8 inches, acrylic on Ampersand gessobord

This started out as a landscape only and was painted a while back.  Although I liked the painting it needed something to finish so it sat and sat.  I thought maybe a cow in the field but that didn't feel right.  Eventually other things grabbed my attention, holidays came and went then someone commissioned me to do a crow.  The light bulb went off and the crows ended up being the perfect something.  Did you know that a group of crows is called a murder of crows?  I think it might have to do with superstitions but check it out.

I use professional heavy body acrylics and Ampersand gessobord is an acid free museum series panel.

Deborah Ann Kirkeeide ©

The Prize

 

Finally getting back to painting again after the holidays and other stuff.  This is a commissioned piece so will not be available for sale however I'm into crows right now so working on a few ideas.  Crows are fun to watch but only occasionally find their way into my backyard and it's usually when I'm feeding peanuts to the blue jays and squirrels.  They don't like to be watched and fly away when going to the window to watch their antics.  Trust needs to be gained I imagine.  

(I cropped a reference photo from pixabay.com)

Deborah Ann Kirkeeide ©  

Rum River Reflections

 

Click Here For Info:  $135, 8x8 inches, acrylic on Ampersand gessobord

I stumbled across this painting the other day which I never posted because in my opinion wasn't good enough.  It brought back memories of my awesome artist friend, teacher and mentor Paul Boecher who we recently lost.  He was always a source of encouragement and inspiration with that "you can do it" spirit, and the first artist who encouraged me to paint plein air (outdoors).  My heart is full with many memories of sitting next to him on the bank of a river.  Thank you Paul for the confidence to say this painting is good enough.

Deborah Ann Kirkeeide ©