Birds of a Feather, Painting Birds.

Birds of a feather stick together at my studio this week. Beautiful sitter Jennifer Fabos brought her pet parrot Rocky along to be painted from life and it was very cute to watch how much Rocky loved her mistress during the sitting, cooing at her loudly, preferring to sit cozily right by her neck.

I didn't know birds had such attachment to humans. On the breaks from being painted Rocky took her water and food causing a few not so happy accidents on the beautiful satin drape I had just spent a fortune on!

Yes, Rocky is a female parrot but this was not known until she started laying eggs, said Jen,  hence the male name. I have painted Jen before with a previous pet bird, Peep. She has a way with birds for sure.

Some say painting from life is for the birds and I must confess, Rocky was a bit fidgety during the painting session but I sure hope she visits again soon with Jen.

To find out more about Jennifer Fabos and her work with Gallery Girls go here:
http://gallerygirls.org/contact-us/  

I post the stages of the sitting  here and am indebted once again to my hero master portraitist  Philip de Laszlo.
https://www.delaszloarchivetrust.com

"Birds of a Feather"
By Johanna Spinks
18"x24"
Oil on Board

FOR PURCHASE
johannaspinksonlinestore

Rocky gets her close-up. I moved her position off the shoulder  to aid the composition. I kept her coloring the same as the dress for color harmony, repeating some of those colors in the background too 

The block-in. I liked the tilt.

The light side of the face is massed in quickly going for a clean statement mixing just two colors at one time.

After about two hours of painting, I start to think about Rocky going in to the frame and just how on earth am I going to do that!

Peep, Peep, Watch The Birdie...365 Days of Drawing...

It was a packed class yesterday for the last day of the teaching semester at CAI including two dogs and one bird named Peep! A true art menagerie.

Peep was the model Jennifer Fabos' pet and was incredible as was she in her Victorian get-up.

AS for my performance, there was a lot of painting on other people's work. Some terrific work going on in the room. I was proud to be these students' teacher.

I felt MY color harmony on my demo could have been much much better so I may have another go today. I was watching the new BRAVO TV show about artists last night doing a set art challenge. One woman said it was not her "art process" to work this way.

I realized I really do have an 'art process' of my own to create something I consider worth while.

Teaching well necessitates stopping and starting on my own demo in class, not particularly conducive to my art process but essential if one is to be a 'hands-on" teacher. This is the decision I make as a teacher. To let go.