Henpecked

 
Of course most people know the phrase "henpecked" meaning persistent nagging usually, but in the true context of the word in the animal world, its a bit more than that.

As readers of the blog know, there are usually chickens in the barn, mostly laying hens these days, keeping me supplied with fresh eggs daily.  Well, there is a pecking order in a flock of birds and sometimes that gets out of order and they turn on one another.  It starts as a little peck or a feather pull then can rapidly progress to constant pecking of the victim til the bird loses feathers, often most of them on top of their head and neck.  Chickens are very aggressive at times and will gang up on and kill another bird that shows signs of distress or bleeding.  I presume its a throwback to the "survival of the fittest" principle, but never nice to witness.

Once noticed, the pecked hens are removed from the flock and left to explore the barn with BD and Buddy, the ducks, til the feathers grow back and they can be reintroduced to the flock.

The sketch at the top of this post is of one of the of henpecked hens who have the run of the barn and garden now, along with BD and Buddy.  The feathers are starting to grow back again but they look pretty scruffy around the head and neck still.  Of course moulting around this time of year doesn't help either.  Here they are enjoying spring, ready for an adventure into the meadow to hunt for bugs.

Work, art and work

 Victoria Beach  Pastel 4" x 6"  

available on auction at Daily Paintworks

Has a week really passed by since I wrote?  I was full of good intentions, but life got away from me.

The studio move proved to be more time consuming than anticipated, but it should be finished by the end of this weekend and I am in there more or less and just starting to set up a new painting.  I am determined to put paint to canvas this weekend.  Provided I can find my palette...  That's the problem with moving, things change places, even if intentions are good.

Here are a couple of views of the new studio as it currently is laid out.  A table will go down the middle of the room and a few things shifted around. Its just far to neat and tidy right now! Not a sign of creative juices flowing anywhere.  That will all change soon.

 

The new space is about double the previous studio and in fact I get two studios eventually.  My old studio needs some plumbing work, so once that is done I can set that up too and have a production and a teaching studio.  Or that's my plan.  Like all renovations, its a huge investment of time, money and energy and one thing leads to another, which leads to another and so on.


Because I haven't had much painting or even sketching time this week, I was getting antsy so did this little drawing/painting in pastel of Victoria Beach, PEI.  The view across the cove with canola flowering bright yellow was irresistable.  Its available on auction this week through Daily Paintworks.  I am putting my small paintings on DPW and so far am having positive results with it.  Like every art sale site there are positive and negative aspects, but overall I'm getting more exposure and enjoy seeing the new art every day.

Speaking of art sales, there's a new Canadian site called Artbomb that's worth watching.  If you subscribe, you receive one email daily with the work of one to three Canadian artists available to bid on.  Bidding is from 6am - 11pm (Eastern time) for one day only.  If your bid is successful, the art is shipped direct to you within two weeks. Only Canadian artists are featured and its good to see the talent from artists across this country being showcased.

I have a couple of other projects in the pipeline and will say more about them in the next couple of weeks.  What with supplying galleries, selling paintings, marketing and admin, as well as my full time job, I really need cloning to get it all done!