Chicks Down South.com has begun a section to welcome artists opportunity to share their work and bio with our readers. Please meet Sarah Hudock.
I grew up on a small wood-heated homestead in Vermont with lots of animals around, including chickens. There were acres of fields and forests to explore. My childhood was spent painting, drawing and reading, but also learning how to raise animals. This included knowing how to grow food, preserve it, and work hard. We lived off the land. It wasn’t easy but these experiences have since served me well.
After high school, I became an artist who hardly ever painted. Being so busy as a single mom and scrambling for money to pay the rent, I worked several jobs at a time. I did what I had to and will admit that there were some very scary times, but it wasn’t all difficult. We had many adventures, and my daughter and I are very close as a result. I learned to fly hang-gliders. Much time was spent outdoors and we always had animals living with us. We went on long road trips. At long last, my daughter is the pride of my life and has taught me what it means to truly love. She is a talented paramedic, firefighter, and currently serves as a Second LT in the Army National Guard.
I rarely practiced my painting and drawing for most of my adult life, but if there is one thing my difficulties have taught me, it is to be grateful for everything; the bad, the good, and the ordinary too. In recent years, I have been blessed with a loving husband who has supported and encouraged me to leave behind my stressful career in network engineering and begin my artistic journey at age 50 to see what I could make of myself. During my previous life, I managed to complete three years of college and several tech certifications, but the only art training I’ve ever had was a single course in 2D design. Other than that, my painting, drawing and Photoshop has been self-taught.
At 55 I am now a dedicated professional artist, and while I prefer to paint scenes from my imagination, I am also specifically inspired by animals and nature. Often, I photograph my garden, wild plants, other animals, and my flock of chickens to use as references. Watercolor by hand is my primary preference whereby building up many layers of paint to create intensity and variations in color occurs. It can take anywhere from two days to two weeks to finish a painting. Afterwards I scan each painted item individually, then digitally arrange and modify them in Photoshop to produce clean, high-resolution file for printing on products.
Creating these digital alterations is fascinating and drives my imagination as much as hand-painting does, but at the same time, maintain the integrity and interest of the original hand-painted artwork is paramount. This, added to the precious combination of quirky dignity and the beauty of chickens is what keeps me creating. At this time learning more about character development, as well as working on bringing more depth and movement into my artwork is important. My desire is to write and illustrate my own books. My most recent fascination has been with artist Aaron Blaise on YouTube, who is my contemporary in that he began as a traditional artist and then also moved into digital art later in life.
My artwork has been licensed to manufacturers including work to Cranston Print Works for fabric sold through Quilting Treasures, journal covers for Ross Stores, and prints for AD Lines Eurogroup for Kirkland’s stores. Currently I have several garden flag designs out for the Cranford Group for their Colorful Garden line (sold at large retailers like Walmart.com, Wayfair, Amazon and Tractor Supply) and will also have three collections coming soon from Fabric Editions for JoAnn Fabrics stores in 2017. My work is available for licensing through my agent Carol White of Artworks. Licensing: carol@artworkslicensing.com
In addition to that, I also run my own business (Chicken Art, LLC) and sell my work on my own products to my chicken-loving fans in the form of outdoor tin signs, garden flags, a yearly calendar, and other items. I invite you to visit my website at ChickenArt.com, where you can see my galleries, more about how I work, and videos of my process. Also please visit my hopping, chirping Facebook page at: Facebook.com/sarahhudock
I hope that you enjoy my images as much as I delight in creating them.
My contact email is: info@chickenart.com
Sarah Hudock
