I had a visitor this weekend; a marvellous Israeli Professor who is passionate about birds and has initiated some wonderful projects worldwide - not the least of which is a project teaching farmers how to use owls instead of pesticides! The owls remove rats and mice from the fields, and his owl nesting boxes are now being used by many grateful farmers, and at the same time, he is promoting peace between neighbours... for example, he has encouraged Arab farmers, who were previously superstitious about owls and thought that they brought bad luck, to try the owl nesting boxes - with huge success. A marvellous bit of cooperation between Israelis and Arabs - we rarely hear about these kinds of collaborations, they are not as newsworthy as bombs and battles!
As a result of his visit, I suddenly remembered that somewhere in my studio, there was a calendar I had produced as a student. I found it, and thought I would just quickly show you some of the birds I tackled at that time, more than thirty years ago!!! One is a watercolour -( I doubt I could paint such an image quite as well today - who was that person then??? I work so differently today. But doesn't he look SOFT!! Owls actually are really soft to the touch, I have stroked one. It didn't mind at all!) the rest are drawings done with carbon pencils. I hope you enjoy them.
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| Long-eared, and Short-eared owls |
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| Cuckoo Owlets |
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| Barred Owls |
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| Young Tawny Owl |
Beautiful work Jackie
ReplyDeleteBeautiful I like them. Janny
ReplyDeleteLove them!!!
ReplyDeletebeautiful, i recently did a collage of an owl who was serenading us during mating season...
ReplyDeleteI sculpted an owl of clay years ago on a milestone perch. Now bronze castings of that owl perch on a concrete version of the stone. His name is Whetherbird. I can never get enough of owls. You seemed to have captured their souls in pencil and paint!
ReplyDeletebeautifully done all of them - I love owls!
ReplyDeletethanks everyone for your lovely comments. most appreciated.
ReplyDeleteI love owls too, but have only seen one species in real like - a Tawyn Frogmouth (I am in Australia) .
ReplyDeleteYour painting is so very soft and delicate. It must have been lovely for you to be prompted to revisit you older artwork
These are terrific, Jackie. I particularly like the long- and short-eared owls. I know what you mean about "who was that person?" I have pictures I did decades ago that I'm not certain I could repeat now. We change.
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