chicken on ply, in acrylic
There is finally a new painting beginning on the easel. It is just a bit of ply with a chicken forming on it. I have a yen to make images of poultry. There is no obvious connection to them apart from the flock my grandfather or some other old person had when I was kid but I feel good things for them. Oh and when I was about fifteen or sixteen years old I worked in that terrible chicken processing plant where there were the worst crimes against animals I have ever seen. Cage birds. That scarred me for years.I love animals.
With so much time out of the act of painting it is difficult to find the skills and remember the tricks but there some nice marks already and I am enjoying the process. I am still working on a Yellow Ochre period of influences. As usual when I use ply for a surface it has no mountings on it. I always forget to set up the bits and bobs that allow it to be hung. This time I had already spent months not working on anything and I do not care about hanging it as much I care about starting it. I will start preparing another panel some time tomorrow and see if I can find a good image of another chicken to work from. I like to base these paintings on living birds but as I cannot get out at all the images of living birds will be good to go.
The damage from moving house is still defining itself and I am so very ill most of the time. The doctor is due for a visit. I have been told a couple of times over the years to get my affairs in order and I think this is another time like that. In the past they have managed to pull another rabbit from the medical hat and keep me alive but that depended on there being a long period between emergencies. All of the stress and the harshness of living here has cut the time to a mere moment. I think it is too soon. I will just do the things that are not done yet. A visit to my mother in late August when the case is finished and a few Skype calls to my brother in Saudi because we are close. Stuff like that. I am not sure how urgent it is. When a group of illnesses and painful handicaps are around so long you get used to the pain and things so it kind of sneaks up to a crisis but this is one of those. I will be looking to see if there are any avenues the doctor can suggest that will give me some relief and I guess there will be all those needles and tests again. I hate that! I almost come to tears thinking about all that again but then I was all choked up during parts of Paul Blart, Mall Cop!