Plumper Rooster Final

© Ellen Blonder

It has taken a month and a half, off and on, to finally get to the fluffy feathers. I've also spent the last couple of days toning some of the colors down and adding last subtle color changes in the plants all around. 

I have heard that this rooster is no longer on the premises, disappearing as mysteriously as he first appeared. I'm glad I got to see him when I did. 

Plumper Rooster 5

© Ellen Blonder

With the plant coming along in the foreground over the past week, the painting finally feels more anchored. 

Plumper Rooster 4

©Ellen Blonder

Some days I've only managed to paint 20 minutes, others not at all. It feels like this is going to take forever, with so many plant details waiting. 

Plumper Rooster 3

© Ellen Blonder

I've been distracted by guests and spring cleaning, but I'm filling this in catch as catch can. Even though I'd love to finish painting the bird first, he's so fluffy that I'd just have to paint around his feathers afterward.

Plumper Rooster 2

© Ellen Blonder

Such a fanciful creature deserves a wild environment, don't you think? This one is going to be fun but slow going, although the canvas board is only 16 x 20 inches.

Plumper Rooster 1

© Ellen Blonder

A magnificent and curious-looking rooster showed up on the lawn our last week in Kauai, and begged to be painted. I want to set him in a more lush environment with plants from elsewhere, although the pink ginger in the lower right corner is from the property. 

Covered with feathers that looked more like fur, this guy differs from any other rooster we've seen wandering about. My husband Nick named him fancifully as a Northumberland Plumper, and I've thought of him as such ever since.

Mynah - Final

© Ellen Blonder

I have finally found some time to just about finish this mynah painting. I may play with the bird's feather texture a bit more, but I'll live with it a while first.

Mynah - More Progress

© Ellen Blonder

I'm slowly filling in background, adding details to the plants, still needing to add detail to the stem of yellow orchids.

Mynah - Progress

 © Ellen Blonder

I know I want a spidery yellow orchid to run diagonally across the upper part of the painting, but I'm still looking for plants to fill in elsewhere. 

 © Ellen Blonder

I've been walking, finding ground covers and a bromeliad I can try out.

© Ellen Blonder

I like the subtle reddish plants, but want to avoid bright flowers that would compete for attention with the mynah's extraordinary eye mask.

Mynah -First Steps

 © Ellen Blonder

© Ellen Blonder

I've been wanting to paint a mynah in Kauai for a long time. They're very camera-shy, and  always fly away before you can come close. I had to wait until I had a better camera with a telephoto lens, to get reference shots close enough to see details in the beak and the yellow superhero mask. This canvas is 12 inches by 16 inches, and I'm working in acrylics.

Donkey Dream - Even Darker

© Ellen Blonder

© Ellen Blonder

Going darker and darker. Funny how it never works to start so dark to save myself the trouble of layering. This is two more days' work.

Donkey Dream

© Ellen Blonder

Just laying in more darks today, bit by bit.

My (Inner) Child Did This

© Ellen Blonder

And now for something completely different. Ten or eleven years ago, a package of my early tropical paintings was lost in transit and never recovered. I wanted to revisit my favorite of them, painted in a more primitive style than I've been doing lately. This is just the underpainting so far, but it's fun to work so loosely for a change. It's 27 x 40 inches, on canvas.