The rooster’s colorful feathers made it easy to use him as the focal point of the painting. I wanted him to look contented and confident as he soaks up the warmth of the sun’s rays on a winter day. Painting the textures and colors of the decaying wood of a storm damaged willow was enjoyable and gave me a chance to echo the warm sienna’s and gold’s of the rooster. Fallen willow twigs dropped during a summer storm camouflage several hens. I kept pheasants in my backyard at one time, because I wanted to get to know them better and be able to study their appearance and habits during each season. The rooster was always conspicuous, but I was continually amazed at the difficulty I had in spotting the hens even though there was limited cover in their pen.

Adding moisture loving smartweed and canary grass gave me other shapes and textures to work with and additional warm colors to play against the blue shadows on the snow.