Rooster Weather Vane 1935 - 1942

Lucille Chabot painted this ‘Rooster Weather Vane’ with watercolor, capturing the essence of folk art. Chabot's delicate strokes bring out the rooster’s form and texture. The washes of colour create depth, almost as if the rooster could crow out. Look at how the layers build up, especially in the tail, giving it a sense of dimension. You can see the touch of the hand in the subtle variations of tone and the way the colors blend and bleed into each other. The use of watercolor gives the piece a certain lightness, a kind of transparency that mirrors the ephemeral nature of weather itself. Maybe the browns and greys, muted tones, evoke the feeling of a cloudy day, when everything feels a little softer, a little more diffused. The watercolor’s translucency captures the way weather vanes themselves seem to point toward the ever-changing skies, their surfaces buffeted and worn by the elements. It brings to mind Marsden Hartley’s later works, where simple subjects are infused with a similar sense of poignancy.