Thursday 9 March 2017

Art workshop for chooks

Early tomorrow morning I'll be heading off to the lovely town of Merriwa to teach some art workshops. Like most artists I need to supplement my income with any sort of teaching work that comes my way. This one will be lots of fun as I have 2 groups of senior citizens for a couple of short workshops of 2 and 3 hours.

Inspired by our pet rooster, Roger the KFC, it occurred to me to create an art lesson based on drawing/painting a chook. For many elderly people keeping a flock of hens in the backyard to provide eggs and meat was something they did themselves or grew up with. In the 8 months since Roger chose our back yard as his territory I've learned what charming and delightful pets chooks can be. I can completely relate to why people who've kept domesticated chickens are so fond of them. We've found Roger to be a lovely and entertaining fellow, his only downside being his operatic ambitions that he wants to start exercising from 4am in the morning. Reluctantly, after the neighbours organised a lynch mob, I had to apply a permanent velcro collar to his neck. The consequence being he can only make very sad spluttering squawks of acceptably low decibels.


This is the type of chicken  picture I'll be guiding the students to make in class
the real KFC Roger, at home in our back yard