she stands out

TITLE: The Original Painting + Prints available in my etsy shop.

forever, i've been wondering why i'm just obsessed with painting my owls. and the other day i woke up from a dream and knew why. if you caught last week's home tour, you'll notice pretty much everything in our house has a story.

i just LOVE things with history and i so enjoy creating art that i can put my story into and then pass on to others, where a new story for each piece begins. the pieces in our house i adore the most, are the things i grew up with-the coffee table that my parent's got as a wedding gift, the stained glass windows my mom found at an antique shop, and the nestle clock with the moon my mom received for baking so many chocolate chip cookies.

well, when i woke up the other morning i remembered a piece i always loved, but don't have-a wood carved statue of an owl!

as a kid, the statue stood as big as me! and it had these incredible marble eyes that made it look alive! the story is that this statue was lost during a move along with a pool cue. i didn't realize until now, just how much that owl meant to me. 

then i remembered an owl i do have! this may not look like an owl to you, but growing up, my mom always had this wall hanging around and i ALWAYS took it to be an owl.

so many people ask me, "what's your connection to owls?" and NOW i see it! it's like these owls have been waiting for me to get to a point where i recognize their importance in my life.

  TITLE: The Original Painting + Prints available in my etsy shop.

this owl painting took a lot of covering and uncovering to get at what you see. i was still playing with my idea of having characters without outlines and having fun blurring together her face and feathers. at one point the background was bright red. then, during my photo shoot, i used it as a piece to paint for a few action shots. i basically used stencils and just spray painted all over. that's why you see the red showing through the dark sky and a bit of navy on her face. 

i really love just how much SHE STANDS OUT.

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ps. CONGRATULATIONS to the lovely Mandy Saile of Bijou's Whimsy! She won my giveaway on choosing beauty for a print of her choice! thank you so much to everyone for all of your kindness and support!

pps. i've been loving documenting my painting process, so on Wednesday i'll be posting a new painting with photos from start to finish!