The Naked Silo

Ted Maczka 17" x 14", ink on Bristol board, 2019, private collection. This was a commission done as a house-warming gift and was based on my oil painting of Ted Maczka  (below), Prince Edward County's famous Fish Lake Garlic Man. The commissioner was aware that the recipient knew Ted well and missed him (Ted died in 2013), so I was more than happy to paint this one. Ted Maczka 36" x 24", oil on canvas, 2011, collection of the County of Prince Edward Public Library and Archives

18" x 14", oil on canvas Here's a nice portrait of the beautiful chicken  on John Della Bosca's shoulder in my portrait  of him and his wife, Geri. When visiting a selection of farmers in Prince Edward County for my Field to Canvas series, I shot a lot of photo reference for use back in my studio. Along with the obvious shots of the people, I took a few pictures of their farms and some livestock in case I needed to incorporate them into their portraits, or, as above and with my recent cow paintings ( here , here , and here ), for use as reference for separate paintings altogether. Detail. There's another painting of winter chickens on the way, and you can see it in its early stage below. Early stage with orange acrylic ground: Top canvas is John Della Bosca's chicken. Bottom canvas is three of John Nyman 's chickens.

36" x 24", oil on canvas, 2011 For more information about Erika, as well as details of this painting,  click here .

Erika runs Reachview Farm  (which is also a bed & breakfast) in Prince Edward County and has been farming for about ten years. She's got vegetables, fruit, grain, hay, sheep, goats, and chickens, but there's another feature that Erika's got that makes her operation quite remarkable: she's entirely off the grid; she supplies her electricity via wind and solar power. None of the farmers featured in these portraits work alone, but, for various reasons, some appear solo and some appear as couples. Erika is not the only woman in the series, but she is the only woman who appears by herself. Just as I felt it was important to show an age range, it was important for me to represent both men and women here, and I am very happy to be able to include Erika. Close up, the weave of the sweater becomes a big, blue field of abstraction. There are areas of thick acrylic underpainting I added for texture (click on the pictures above and below), but only surrounding E...