Last night we built a fire, poured a glass of wine and played chess. Rog was way too relaxed and taking
f o r e v e r to make his moves. I found myself thinking about, if the chess men were chickens, what would they look like? Pawns= chicks of course, King= a big fat rooster, queen would have to be a Polish with a pronounced plume.
This morning we woke up to a beautiful white blanket of snow! Unlike Minneapolitans who are accustomed to such weather, we southerners hunker down in snow. I love that. I love the quiet when everything stops. We play.
Somedays I just want simple. Watercolor goes on easy, fresh and spontaneously. It frees up the mind. Painting too heavily with too many layers can kill a watercolor in no time. Maintaining transparency, letting the white paper glow from behind, is the key to a clean, crisp, clear, painting.
One can rarely see the eyes of a Polish Chicken because of their immense mop of head feathers. The beauty of being a painter and not a photographer, is I can give you this- what I think she looks like underneath it all. The standards from the Polish Breeders Club says a perfect crest should not obstruct the vision. My live Polish model would never get in the show. This might. 
I reference many real birds for my paintings, they end up an amalgamation of many. The subject is just there as part of the painting- the shapes, the colors, the light, the movement.
Minnesota had its first big snow storm of the season last week and I got to be in it! Snow covered pines are particularly magical when accented with a flash of a Cardinal.
