Molly

Here's Molly (named after our eldest daughter). She's the newest farm fowl acquired by my bro-in-law.  She's really beautiful! Did I mention...I love painting these!

Oil on panel, 6" x 6", $100 + $10 domestic shipping

 
or contact brenda@brendaferguson.com

The Lone Stranger

Honestly I still haven't figured out if this is a raven, a grackle or a plain ole crow, but I love the posture and silhouette it creates against the background.  And sometimes... ya just gotta have hot pink! It's partner, The Lone Ranger, is here.

Oil on panel, 6" x 6"

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Fifty Shades of Jay

One of the many birds in our yard. I painted this one for this week's Daily Paintworks Challenge. Though I have before, I don't typically pre-mix my paint colors. It was fun to try it again. You can read more about it and see all the entries here. 

Oil on panel, 6" x 6"

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Sadie

If you've been following along with the case of the mistaken farm fowl sex (see previous post here), the good news is the two roosters, Lucky and Ezra, have found a wonderful new home not too far from here where they will live long, happy, well cared for lives. And having wanted egg-layers to begin with, my bro-in-law and his wife acquired two new hens! Being females and having our two daughters as his nieces, my b-i-l thought it was fitting to name them after our daughters, Sadie and Molly. Which is hilarious to me since, growing up in our family, our daughters have always bemoaned the fact that we gave them animal names. It seems every new friend or acquaintance we meet has a dog or cat or even a cow named Molly or Sadie! I think they're beautiful names for these beautiful birds...and my girls. :o)

Oil on panel, 6" x 6"

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Lucky Too

I'm really having fun with these chickens! Here's Lucky the rooster again. More to come...

Oil on panel, 6" x 6"

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Brand New

This is Maggie. A friend recently acquired some new calves. She snapped several photos for me and graciously let me paint from them. This one's a little looser than my usual...and I'm pleased with it.

It was a bit of a rough week recovering from 'elixir of life' treatment and an extracted back molar...but I'm feeling better now and anxious to get back to the roosters!

Oil on panel, 6" x 6"

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Out of the Blue

My dear friend and fellow artist, Suzanne Berry, sent me a gigantic bouquet of the most beautiful tulips and irises last week...just out of the blue! Such a wonderful unexpected surprise...she's like that. :o) I snapped lots of photos and plan to paint more from them.

 Oil on panel, 6" x 6", $100 + $10 domestic shipping

 
or contact brenda@brendaferguson.com

Lucky

This is Lucky. He has beautiful warm russet and gold feathers up front and downy dove gray ones behind. Here's the story behind the chickens as relayed to me by my bro-in-law, Scott.

"I'm not sure if you've heard the story but the two very cute, 1-day-old chicks we took home from the Fryeburg Fair have grown up. The fellow who gave them to us gave them a close look in all the important places and told us they were hens (chickens who lay eggs.) After several weeks of raising the chicks, first in the dining room and later in the summer kitchen, it's now apparent that they are both roosters (chickens who crow early in the morning, don't lay eggs and would love to chase hens around.)

Through the process of raising these young roosters, we soon learned that they ate about twice as much feed as the hens. Surprise, they also produce about twice as much chicken poop - and of course, no eggs. So yesterday, we carted three 30 gallon garbage cans of very ripe rooster bedding out from the summer kitchen rooster coop to the compost pile behind the barn and replaced it with a nice layer of shavings, hay and leaves. The boys are grooving on their new digs. 

When we thought they were hens, they were named Erza and Lucy. When they were youngster chickens, we handled them every day so as to make them less nervous with human contact. Now that it's obvious they are roosters, they are re-named Ezra and Lucky. But they are still very social and watched the coop cleaning with interested eyes on a temporary perch above the coop. Lucky really grooved on a backrub from me, believe it or not.  The boys are very handsome and Dawn snapped photos all day long. At last count, she said she had taken about 200 images.

As much as we like them, the roosters will need to go in the next couple of months, so we are looking for a good home for Ezra and Lucky. We know we can send them to some of our friends, but we fear they will end up as dinner sooner rather than later. We are hoping to find a barnyard home since we think these guys have good potential for a free range flock. If you know of any pals who might be interested, please let us know."

The good news is we think we've found a perfect home nearby.

Oil on panel, 6" x 6"

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Henny

This  begins a series I'm very excited about. Oh, I may toss in another subject here and there, but right now I'm all about these farm foul! My brother-in-law and his wife have hens and roosters...so, thanks to my sis-in-law, I have LOADS of new images to work from! There's more to the story that I'll fill you in on as we go. 

Oil on panel, 6" x 6"

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Lone Ranger

I'm really having fun including this beautiful piece of twisted driftwood we have attached to the deck off our bedroom. The birds love perching on it, waiting their turn at the feeder. And I really loved the silhouette of this bird!

Oil on panel, 6" x 6"

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Winter's Blush

I love this view from our bedroom window...it's where the sun and moon rise. I painted this as my submission to the Daily Paintworks 'Paint the Snow' challenge. You can see the other submissions here.

Oil on panel, 6" x 6", $100 + $10 domestic shipping

 
or contact brenda@brendaferguson.com