Rooster Cogburn
"How You Doin?" he seems to say as he struts along in front of the ladies.
I kept thinking of my grandfather as I painted Mr. Rooster. Not because he loved chickens, but because I kept thinking of this rooster as 'Rooster Cogburn' and that thought led to my Grandfather who loved his western movies, especially those starring John Wayne. The dialogue in those old western movies was really something else. This one made me laugh as I read it this morning on the IMDB website:
Rooster Cogburn : When's the last time you saw Ned Pepper?
Emmett Quincy : I don't remember any Ned Pepper.
Rooster Cogburn : Short feisty fella, nervous and quick, got a messed-up lower lip.
Emmett Quincy : That don't bring nobody to mind. A funny lip?
Rooster Cogburn : Wasn't always like that, I shot him in it.
Emmett Quincy : In the lower lip? What was you aiming at?
Rooster Cogburn : His upper lip.
Read more about the movie True Grit on IMDB https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0065126/characters/nm0000078
Maybe my love of westerns comes from my grandfather and the joy we shared while watching those old movies. When he got older and his hearing got worse, the TV volume would be so loud that you could hear it before your feet touched the front porch step. You would hear the hallmark sounds of any good western movie: guns ablazin' and horse hoofs pounding the hard dirt. Yep, Papa was watching a western.
But back to the painting, having a chicken coop is all the rage right now, so off I set to paint a chicken. I happened upon several reference photos and a tutorial by Emily Olson and got to work. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJmcsSNRPYjXoh8EwmhXB7A
Painted on 9 x 12 inch watercolor pad using watercolor paints by Daniel Smith https://amzn.to/39xDMjo
Happy Trails,
Helen