Barn Owl Painting

Barn Owl Painting

For centuries, British wildlife has featured in Children's literature, especially owls. The barn owl has a particularly ethereal air about it that evokes a sense of mystery and make-believe about its existence when in its own environment, without the intrusion from human observation.

I’m always surprised to hear the call of an owl, as I do sometimes, but it shouldn’t be so, as there are fields nearby and I can see the tops of the trees that belong to the ancient woods along the road - they make beautiful silhouettes against dawn and dusk skies. Sometimes I have spotted a bat at dusk but they flit about so quickly that there is always an element of doubt as to quite what was spotted.

Partly due to the elusive natures of some of our British wildlife, I imagine the whole woodland area comes to life overnight with the abundance of nocturnal woodland animals and birds it provides shelter and food for - foxes, dormice, badgers, owls, bats and hedgehogs!

Our local village is at the edge of suburban sprawl that links us with London; just beyond the garden, surrounding us in the other directions, are local fields, hedgerow, common, meadow or woodland – and a little further on from there is where the countryside starts.

Barn owl painting. The owl is flying and a misty moon sky sets an atmospheric mood for the background. The overall painting is done with watercolour and ink. The original painting was enhanced with a digital background. The effect is an ethereal, magical barn owl watercolour painting in classic fairytale illustration style.

I painted this in watercolour and ink a while ago but wanted to do further work on it. I digitally added the background this morning to see how it might look with the moonlit sky and quite like the effect - I'm looking forward to painting another one and will create the background effect with paint.

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