(This post was first published November 28, 2016)
After a recent visit to the newly renovated SFMOMA, I came home inspired to try out some abstract modern techniques on my poultry subjects. As November comes with a very specific poultry association, it felt right and proper to focus on the majestic turkey for this effort.
At the museum, I was drawn to Georges Braque, Stuart Davis, and Juan Gris. Each of these artists are exemplary of the period and each portray in their different ways the aspects of this style that draw me in the most: line intermingled with shape, an expression of simplicity through chaos, and fascinating interplay of colors and textures. These features often work together to create a sort of visually perceptible rhythm or vibration that I find fascinating.
I began with some detailed drawings of turkeys from reference photographs on Google. From there, I endeavored to simplify the creatures to their basic forms through expressive lines and minimal detail. Here you can see one of my detailed turkey portraits next to the simplified version:
I settled on a composition of three tom turkeys overlapped and interwoven in a posture suited to conspiring, gossiping, or perhaps caroling if you're feeling festive. The composition is symmetrical, but the left and right turkeys are dissimilar enough to keep the eye engaged. For the colors, I knew I wanted an autumnal palette with rich, warm earth tones and captured those pigments in an unexpected yet inspired way—all the colors are directly sampled from one photograph of turkey feathers:
That's right, each color in my final composition was sampled directly from the above photograph. Who knew turkeys were so colorful?
Here’s my finished artwork along with a closeup. If you like this painting you can purchase prints of it at my Etsy shop. It is also available on several household items at my Society6 shop.
