Meet The Colonel. He was a rescue rooster that I had for couple years and one of the nicest and bravest roosters I had over the course of handful of years I kept chickens. He was so nice, I could pick him up and pet him and he never attacked me, the kids, or the dog. I could tell he was fighting mysterious predators off because occasionally he would all the sudden look like hell and have quite a few broken and missing feathers. I think it helped that he was a seriously massive rooster.

He bravely protected his flock until the end when one day, I assume a raccoon got him instead of his ladies. I can only assume though since he vanished without a trace. That was the end of my chicken keeping. I was devastated at his loss and got rid of my entire flock soon after. Although, I do miss having them around sometimes.

This painting is a 5×7 inch oil on panel. I had a lot of fun painting this since it was a little experimental. I used my big hog hair bristle brushes instead of my smaller synthetics and I really like how it turned out. I also completely made up his surroundings and I think it turned out well enough. I also painted this really quickly in only two layers which I’ve decided I may like more these days than the many, many smooth layers I’ve been doing.

I used both phthalo blue and green in this painting and they were the perfect colors for the iridescent feathers of his tail and body. The phthalo colors are now some of my new favorite colors. I know I previously mentioned phthalo green as one of my new favorites, but I recently also bought the blue and I like it as much as the green. Mixed together they make some absolutely stunning turquoise colors and I adore the rich coppery red that I can achieve by mixing a touch of phthalo green in with cadmium red.