The chicken

       living in the back country chickens help survival. But the philosophy of Na-ma

ha means they have to be free ranging with total freedom and the problems that comes with it. You have to learn egg hunting , assess the freshness, the cleanness of the egg, the weight of the egg. The color and the feel of the outer shell. But then its not just egg. It is the most pure, complete, flavorful and spiritual food that you are consuming and above all it satisfy you.

                                                 In the abyss of pigments while I was sinking without a clue, I see one of the roosters walking towards me and that lead me to a deliberate path of observing the chickens in their space with out any interference or assumptions. Just observe. Nothing much in the beginning but I stayed true to my commitment to observe. It became very interesting quickly and learned a lesson that you have to observe the entire world around them to observe them.

                                                  What a fascinating world that is. How roosters observe everything around them and communicate to each other in low rumbling frequencies when a threat shows up. How the communication changes based on the type of threat. And here in this rolling prairies they protect the flock from peregrine falcons, red tail hawks, ferrugenous hawks, bald and golden eagles, honey badgers weasels, Owls and the legendary coyotes. I knew I have to bring him to the canvas. His name is Fire one of the high ranking rooster of the three roosters.

                                                     While building him in my mental space, I started to set some dynamic quality filters that need to be passed to call it a final product.

    The size of the canvas which is the last layer, need to be representing his mass, hence I chose a

   16 *20 inch.

   The composition should not be for pleasant viewing, instead should represent his status and personality. Where ever he is he acts like he owns it. Yes he owns the canvas.

   He shines in his oily feathers hence only oil painting can truly be representing.

   He is always in the grains with the elements around him. Be it the wind, the rising heat wave , moving grass, the cool blue above with streaks of white clouds etc. He is always it the grain blending into the surroundings, hence need to create a grain in the background and the subject that flows together and overcome the square pixels in the canvas.

Colors should be over powering because when you see him in the bright light, you do not see the concrete well defined rooster but really a flash of raging color energy that does not have definite borders and mingle with even the contrasting cool blues of the sky.

His attitude is powerful elegance and intense calmness yet extreme alertness that need to be truly represented in his eyes or the project fails.

As an artist you shall be ruthlessly fearless about every aspect of the process to represent him because that is what he is.

The viewing distance shall be 8 feet. You get inside of that 8 feet, he will get you.

Every brushstroke should carry it's merit. Long, wavy and elegant just like the cock walk.

His personality is so flamboyant that he needs to pop out.

Three shall not be any stress or hesitation in the mind or body of the artist while doing the painting.

It should be finished as fast as possible before the day end and he goes back to the coup.

Long hours of accumulated agony will not represent him.

I finished the painting in 3 hours. Minimal palette and raging frequency of colors and a massive chest that fights, mates, scratch the ground and run the ranch.

This picture still talks to me so not ready to sell yet but prints will be available as soon as i set up the collectons.