Yes, I'm partial to both hens and windowsills, and here I've combined both. I'm pleased with the thatched straw of the roof and of the grubby, dirty whitewashed wall. This is perhaps my favourite painting so far.
For once I quite like the finished work. I think I got the whitewashed walls and the crumbling paint of the door just right. Also, the straw of the thatched roof turned out well. I'm also pleased with the subject matter. Who doesn't love hens?
Believe it or not, the rancid green window actually was that rancid. I don't feel this painting is a any particular success. The subject matter is the problem; it's just too dull. Still, it didn't take me more than a hour to paint.
I think the geese need a little more work, and I don't like the way the farmer himself has dead eyes, like a zombie's. The wall is poorly coloured, I feel. However, as always, the best bit is the bit in which I've done very little, and here it is the almost blank whitewashed wall.
Philip Jamison is my favourite watercolourist and this is a poor copy of his gorgeous painting "Farm on Frank Road No. 2". If you compare the two (available in his book "Capturing Nature in Watercolor"), you will find mine is very, very much the inferior and I blush to even mention it.
I am happy with the way Doc's jacket and pullover turned out, and the cap, I think, is quite nicely done, but otherwise I'm not overly pleased with this. I dislike portraits in which the subjects stare straight out at the viewer. I like the shadow on the righthand-side of Doc's face; there's a touch of ultramarine blue in the shade. I'm not so keen on the lefthand-side, which is a little too tan.
I painted this because I was specifially interested in the shadows of the thatched roof and the upper window flower pots. The wheel spokes are painted dark when against light background, and light when against dark. Quite stupidly, I managed to misspell "stout" and had to scrub it out with sponge and redo.
