Barn owls

I have yet to do an owl as part of my collection, but since developing the birds-in-flight theme, I decided now was the time to tackle them.

I’m rapidly running out of the fabulous paper I’ve been using for the last 9 months so I need to get some more. In the meantime, I’ve got a small book of white Khadi paper which I thought would work well. The texture of the handmade paper is soft and off-white, and replicates the plumage of the owl.

I found some excellent resource photos from a couple of Instagram photographers, and sketched the owls in pencil. I wanted to depict classic hunting poses, and a triptych seemed a good solution. I normally allow the white of the paper to do the talking, but there is so much on the owl I have left the pencil marks in. I also wanted to keep a very limited palette of grey, yellow ochre and burnt umber. That ethereal and ghostly effect came out really well and the gouache is so well-received by the paper, they were a joy to paint.

These were so enjoyable and effective, I painted another three:

I mostly sell my work wrapped and mounted, but I wanted to frame these sets myself as I had how I wanted them to look in my mind’s eye. Here are the finished pictures:

These are selling at £100 each plus postage.