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| April on the Front Porch, acrylic on canvas, 30x24 |
Hallelujah--I think April is 98 percent finished. I originally blogged about her on
May 23 (I should have listened to that voice that was saying "larger.") After she grew, I felt she needed a throne rather than a metal outdoor chair so I had to visit the thrift shop and look at chairs--all mine are modern. (Here in southern VA we don't really have indoor furniture on our front porches, but I did have a toilet sitting in the front yard for a while.) I wanted an old Coke bottle as a vase but mine's gone missing; at midnight, I substituted a piece of van Briggle pottery--that meant getting the ladder and retrieving the vase from a high shelf. My paintings sometimes become projects and I work through the night.
I like that April's arms are wing-like and her legs resemble the Colonel's drumsticks and thighs.
When I signed this I was listening to KD Lang and the Reclines; KD was singing "Big Boned Woman." I imagine April dancing at the Legion Hall.
This is not my first work with a woman and rooster; there was a sculpture 20 years ago--Mystic Woman aka Chick with a Chick (photo below). She was sold to a sculptor from West Virginia.
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| terra cotta and white clay, 24" h |
Posts
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Congratulations Hallie! April is a beautiful paintings. I love the look on her face, the slackness in her legs, and the very tight fence. It was totally worth getting up on the ladder!
ReplyDeleteApril is much better to look than Dave. A very nice rooster also.
ReplyDeleteEverette T. McGill
I love love love the rooster in her arms, nude and throned! naked on the front porch, what a unique insight... what's it all mean?!
ReplyDeleteThanks Carole. I think her look is saying: "What are you looking at--never seen a rooster before?"
ReplyDeleteAnonymous (Everett). April might visit you if you add a front porch.
Hi Robin. You question made me laugh--maybe I'm an exhibitionist at heart or maybe I'm slipping into dementia. The skin and the throne were fun to paint--just made them up as I went. I do know that redheads are usually muscular with pale skin and red undertones. My friends are enjoying coming up with alternate titles for this painting.
ReplyDeletewhat a good painting! I am pretty entranced by that fence. The fence provides a perfect "foil" for her nudity and the red hair and the chicken. I don't know why all this works, but it does. I think she is definitely a nudist who loves the feel of the air on her skin and she is a vegan too..so that chicken is safe. :)
ReplyDeleteExcellent work.
ReplyDeleteIt has been delightful
to visit your gallery.
Good Creations
skizo
Well, April sure is one funny firecracker! I'm thinking those chicken nails might hurt a wee bit! I am especially in awe of that column, Hallie. I do not know why (except I usually am drawn to architectural details), but I do know you've painted it beautifully!
ReplyDeleteHi Celeste. Thanks, I think she looks very comfortable just wearing skin. She came close to NOT being a vegan; I considered a stump with a hatchet in upper right background (the authentic southern chopping block).
ReplyDeleteBrandNewStudio (Skizo). Thank you--I love visiting your blog.
ReplyDeleteHi AutumnLeaves. My small front porch is my inspiration. I painted the columns--then looked at my porch--close but certainly not accurate. (It's fun to make them up as you go along; mistakes become part of the design.)
Is that a Rhode Island Red? I'm also wondering what kind of rooster she's holding? :-)
ReplyDeleteYou are one of the most creative and original people that I know. I always come away from your blog with a smile and inspired. Thank you.
April rules!
-Don
Hi Don. I'd say she's more southern Virginia--biscuits and cornbread, fried apple pies and sweet iced tea. The rooster's special because he's just made up of all the reds and yellows that were handy.
ReplyDeleteFor some reason this reminds me of being at Ten Thousand Waves Spa in Santa Fe. Dave and I were the only ones wearing bathing suits in the communal tub. Every other person--man, woman, and child--was very comfortable being nude. I grinned from ear to ear and couldn't wait to tell my DC/MD friends (the ones who wore suits and ties and hose and heels) about my adventure. I'd like to go back one day and pretend I'm a native--they had great massages, too.
Oh Hallie! I love her! She is so content with herself. This painting works on so many levels and I think you taking your time with it paid off.
ReplyDeleteI've looked again and again and it's simply perfect. It belongs in a museum- NOW!
Hi Pam. What a nice thing to say. April does make me smile. Now that it's finished I can see Freud's influence in the chair, Picasso's influence in the nude, and a bit of Grant Wood in the fence. I guess we bring every painting we've ever seen with us when we paint, and we don't know it until we look back. I wish I'd taken a better photo--or at least squared it up--I was shooting outside between thunderstorms; anxious to finally call April finished.
ReplyDeleteApril is as rooster-like as her rooster. I like her expression. I also like the orange against the green, and the touch of blue. It is amazing how the small vase with the eensy-weensy flower balances the piece. Uniquely surreal - if that's the right word - again. You have an enviable creative sensibility. Cool painting!
ReplyDeleteThe interruption in working on this has not done it any harm. It's still a hoot that she just happens to be sitting on the front porch naked with a rooster and she's posing for a portrait! She does have a knowing smile. What she knows I don't know but, that is what makes me come back to it.
ReplyDeleteThank you, Dan. That eensy-weensy flower is close to where I considered putting a hatchet. The hatchet would have turned this into a painting about dinner preparation (and I did wonder what you might say about that).
ReplyDeleteThank you, LifeArtist. When I stop working on a painting for a while, I almost never get back to it. It was hard to retrieve the vision or whatever it was that made me want to paint this--I felt I was plodding along for a while--and April just kept smiling and watching from her comfortable chair.
ReplyDelete........and.......the wee vase on the rail is inspired!
ReplyDeleteHi Celeste. I could only afford the small vase at the Arts & Crafts pottery auction! Actually, April and her rooster kept growing until they dwarfed my tiny porch.
ReplyDeleteAnother original Hallie -- love it! You'll never catch me holding my son's rooster, Leo, in the nude on the porch, mostly because Leo firmly anchored his spur in my shin as I innocently descended the porch steps. I still have the scar to prove it.
ReplyDeleteI love the contrasting greens and red, and April's red hair repeated in the rooster. The vase with flower balances the whole scene nicely. So much more interesting than some perfectly formed 20 year-old.
Thanks Mary. I won't be holding a rooster, either. When I was 4 or 5 my older brother would antagonize the rooster, then run towards me. I'd run screaming as the rooster then chased me--that's how I fell and broke my gold-filled expansion bracelet with the tiny diamond in a heart. I haven't forgotten (ha). I steer clear of roosters.
ReplyDeleteI think April and the rooster share the same hairdresser.
Hi Hallie, I've been trying to post a comment for a couple days, so I'm not expecting you to see this. I'm just testing.
ReplyDeleteThanks Sue. A couple of people have had problems; sometimes it takes several attempts for me to make comments on blogs I follow. I don't know why.
ReplyDeleteMy first comment to your blog I think.
ReplyDeleteI like your figure paintings; they are very frank. my sister has two roosters,one is just normal but the other smaller of the two, is meaner than the dickens. Racoon got in she thinks; guess which one he got?
Hi Carrie. Thanks for stopping by and leaving a comment. I'm curious--which one did the racoon get? The small mean one? I've visited your blog often (via Celeste's sidebar) and recognize you from "behind the scenes."
ReplyDeleteMy sister won't tell me which one until I come back over to can tomatoes!:) I do know a big raccoon *died* on a neighbors place about 4 days later and I hear the grand children are now more willing to collect eggs.
ReplyDeleteOh--poor racoon, Carrie. I have trouble with sad animal stories. Have fun canning tomatoes--I remember my mother doing that. I just eat the ones neighbors grow.
ReplyDelete