Behold the Mighty Chicken Muse

Because poultry can be a great source of artistic inspiration

Over the holidays, we (various family members) have been attempting to catalogue the artwork Dad left behind. There are paintings, sketchbooks, prints, mockups, digitally altered works, collage… So many pieces of paper to sort, record, keep track of, and figure out when and where he was working on a particular project. There are also thousands of reference photos, sketches, and notes-to-self and it has been pretty cool to track some of his earliest visual interests through the years.

Though he drew and painted many, many subjects, some recurred with the frequency of the finest of obsessions.

Chickens are just such a subject.

The very earliest extant sketchbook we found we figure was done in the 1950s when he was a student at the Sunderland College of art (maybe even earlier? from his grammar school days?). Several pages feature quick little sketches of hens scratching about. Back in the day, chickens would have been pretty handy subjects (and they are pretty cool), so I can see why he felt the need to draw a few. [Note: I had that sketchbook in my hand the other day, but for the life of me I can’t find it at the moment, so I’ll add a scan of one of the hen-centric pages at a later date.]

These little drawings were from a more recent sketchbook, perhaps done as doodles while he was on hold on the phone or casting his mind around for his next, more serious work.

Sometimes, the more significant work actually featured a chicken, often roosters with their irresistible fire-engine-red combs.

Probably my all-time favourite rooster painting is one of Bill, the rooster who lorded over the farm (back in the day when I spent a lot of time with poultry…).

What’s not to love about this one? Dad nailed the haughty, ‘don’t mess with my hens’ look of this stunning rooster.

After he’d finished the painting, he then set about immortalizing Bill in a linocut print, of which a handful are signed, numbered and ready to go to new homes. (Should you happen to know of a collector who loves chickens as much as Dad did, let me know).

Here’s an early proof to test ink colors…

Hm… I don’t have any of the final Bill prints handy, but I did find these of one of our many bantam roosters…

Here’s another painting - another day, another bantam…

We’ve also been digitizing thousands of photos - I lost count of how many chicken photos we have taken over the years - and after scanning a bazillion hens, chicks, and roosters, I couldn’t resist trying my hand at one of my own.

I figure I only need to draw another 10,000 or so before I come up with something close to impressive. But it’s been fun - and a great reminder that any subject - even the humble chicken - can be a great muse and source of artistic inspiration.

When I was doing a series of searches through images backed up in my cloud, I stumbled on this funky chicken.

Where Have All the Paintings Gone?

Oh - I nearly forgot to mention that a project I’ve been hoping to tackle forever is finally making it to the top of the to-do list. Now that I’ve got so much material (many photos of paintings emerged in those boxes of family pix) scanned and more or less organized, I’m going to try to document as many of Dad’s paintings as I can track down and post them over on his Artist Page on Facebook. If you happen to own something by E. Colin Williams, ARCA (or know where something is hanging), please let me know. All subjects (not just chickens) are welcome!

Happy New Year!! I hope 2024 is treating you well so far!