BETHEL — Ten-year-old Harper Landry of Bethel cares for 80 chickens at her grandparents’ farm on Route 26. A few years ago she started selling her abstract paintings at the family farm stand by the eggs and beef.

In December, she took her craft to the next level, teaching about 30 teachers at her school how to “paint pour” at an after-school workshop.

Landry’s mother, Courtney Blake, said before the workshop her daughter was selling small canvas paintings to teachers at Crescent Park Elementary School. Returning  home with pockets full of five dollar bills, Blake thought, “How long before they’re like, ‘Yo, your kid is hustling the teachers.'”

Instead, school Principal Tanya Arsenault invited Landry to co-host the teacher workshop, with supplies paid by the Parent Teacher Association.

When the teachers arrived after school on that December day, they thought they were going to a training but instead were guided to the art room. Blake said her daughter was nervous but, “the second they started pouring paint on the canvasses she was at every table, helping them, ‘ooh that’s really cool, tilt it like this,'” she said.

Blake added, “She secretly liked the idea of teaching the teachers too.”

Landry admits she gets into “mad scientist” mode when she paints. She begins by dropping the acrylic paint on the canvas’ center then “stretches” it out. She uses a pallet knife or sometimes a straw to blow the paint across the surface. To create the fluid, flowing effect, she uses an additive called Floetrol.

One day, Harper told her mother, “I’m going to need Australian Floetrol.”

Blake responded, “What? I got you the American version, and it seems to work fine.”

At first, Landry worked on smaller canvases and magnets, but lately, she’s been painting on larger canvases. She has completed some commissioned pieces, with prices for the larger works set at $50. Half of that goes toward supplies, and the other half goes into Landry’s savings account.

Landry is also drawing comics. She’s working on a book titled “Marshmallow Life,” which she is illustrating and writing with her friend Mya Field of Newry. The story is about a marshmallow who ends up as a s’more.

Eighth generation farmer

Landry’s other passion is her chickens. She and her mother affectionately call their five flocks “a chicken retirement home.”

Blake said when locals want to provide their hens with a new home, they ask Harper to take them. She keeps them in their already established flocks, her mother said, “so their life doesn’t change too much.”

The flocks are named: The Reba Crew, The Fluffy Butt Huts, The Girls, The Up-top Chickens, and The Fraggles.

 Landry and Blake spend most days at the farm, helping care for the animals. In addition to the chickens, the farm is home to horses, cows and a cat.

The family farm has been in the Blake family since 1822, when Micah Blake traded farms with the Annis family, acquiring 122 acres. The hayfields and meadow are across Route 26, which was developed into a paved road in the 1940s or 1950s.

Outside the kitchen’s back door are two of the five chicken coops. With the clucking, it’s a little loud inside at the kitchen table. Blake points out that with their internal clocks determining their laying frequency, and with the days lengthening, the clucking will get even louder as the hens squabble about who gets which box to lay their eggs.

Landry can identify all her hens and knows their personalities, too. While it hasn’t happened yet, she hopes her hens will learn to play the xylophone and mini-piano she set up in one of the coops. Another coop has overhead fencing to protect the delicate “silkies,” who can’t see predators because their vision doesn’t extend all the way around.

When Landry’s first hen died four or five years ago, they created a family holiday held every July 26 called, “Clucker’s Day.”

“It is a day to remember and love our chickens,” Blake said.

Asked if Harper will take over the farm someday, Blake smiles and responds, “Yes – if there are chickens involved.”