Chickens!

"Study of chickens in the flower garden"
8" x 10" oil on canvas, 2013
Hilary J. England

I have been offline for a bit, as we have been having a terrible time with our internet service in this area, so this has given me more time to just relax and work on new projects I had been hoping to explore, such as new jewelry pieces and designs, and sculpting in clay, etc.  Very exciting!

Here is a little artwork inspired by my friend C, and his pullets.  These are not the pullets, but grown chickens, but I am in a "chickeny" mood from all of this talk about chickens, pullets, hen houses, and fresh eggs.

Enjoy!

Towhead picking poppies

"Towhead picking poppies" by Hilary J. England
8" x 10" oil on canvas, 2013

I am continuing to move into the mindset of painting a large, multi-person portrait, with mother and four children.  This requires a very certain frame of mind, and to start the warm-up, to get the "juices" flowing in my mind, I have begun to limber up with small studies in the realm of where I need to be.

This study, "Towhead picking poppies" is another whimsical painting I did to get my mind into the area of expression that I feel is in the direction of where I am going with this.  Children in a natural environment, organic poses, etc.  As Anthony says, no Victorian stiffness, haha.  A more expressive, true, and honest perception.

So, I am gathering my thoughts, and am building my momentum up.  I will probably work for at least another week or two in this subject matter to be sure that I feel prepared to embark onto the project.  It will be a very large piece, and that in itself takes a substantial amount of energy to prepare for and to actually execute.  I haven't done a substantially large piece in over a year, so the time has arrived to jump back in.

Enjoy~

Happy Labor Day!

"The red hat" by Hilary J. England
8" x 11" oil on canvas, 2013

I've started messing around with doing some whimsical paintings again.  I saw a young woman in the park with a giant red hat, which just screamed for attention, yet she seemed uncomfortable with both the hat and the day in general.  When she turned her back to me, I got to studying her hat and her silhouette against the bright, hazy blue sky, and thought: without seeing her face, the mystery of her story is very intriguing.  She can have so many things, either positive or negative, that are affecting her, and yet, with her back against the plane of vision, and her face to the sky, she is an enigma.

So, she could have heaven or hell seething in her eyes, she could have just won the lottery, or gotten a break-up e-mail from her boyfriend...we never know what is happening in the privacy behind the curtain or veil of our faces.  So, I painted the red hat.

I'll probably start doing some more figurative work, since I have some portrait commissions to complete, and much like an actor, I like to stay in character while I am working on a project.  So, that should be both interesting and challenging for me.

In the meantime, enjoy the end-of-Summer Labor Day holiday!