Owls in Art & Photography

Photo (2024),
McDonald

In May of 2021, I posted about Birds in Contemporary Art and Photography. Today, I am inspired by a photograph taken by my nephew while stationed in Kuwait. It is a Pallid Scops Owl, one of six species found there.

My Michigan sister-in-law professionally photographed this Snowy owl. It migrates from Canada to Michigan in the Winter. There are at least seven other kinds of owls found in Michigan: Barred owl, Great Horned owl, Northern Hawk owl, Eastern Screech owl, Long-eared owl, Northern saw-whet owl, and the Burrowing owl.

I've researched artists famous for painting owls and here's what I found:

Detail from Garden of
Earthly Delights, Bosch

Perhaps the earliest and creepiest paintings of owls were done by Dutch artist, Hieronymus Bosch, famous for his tryptic Garden of Earthly Delights (1503-15). His tiny owl peers out from a log hidden amidst an otherwise busy menagerie of fantastical creatures and figures.

"Owls were generally associated with menace and death and had an emblematic, moralistic significance."

A Snowy Owl, Tunnicliffe

British Naturalist painter and etcher, Charles Frederick Tunnicliffe (1901-1979) is famous for painting birds and other wildlife. I like the white and black bird against the background's subdued color palette.

See  Royal Academy link to copyrighted Tunnicliffe paintings and etchings.

Wood Owl (1968),
Picasso 

Fun fact: Pablo Picasso rescued an injured owl and kept it as a pet that became the inspiration for a series of Picasso's whimsical painted ceramics.

See British wildlife artist, Robert Fuller's (1972) My Collection of Barn Owl Paintings. What I appreciate about owls is their ability to blend into their surroundings. Note the amber color highlighting its wings and repeating in the tree trunk's moss. It's like they camouflage during the daytime, and except for their eyes (and hoot) are pretty much invisible at night.

Barn Owls, Immature, Jamie Wyeth

Jamie Wyeth (1946-), son of Andrew Wyeth, painted Immature Barn Owls in 2006. While the owls themselves are somewhat ghostly, the artist was successful at showing them hiding in the shadowy rafters of the barn.

AB Owl (2023), Patterson 

My 'owl' pumpkin was inspired by Angry Birds. I was going for eyes that got lighter and lighter with each concentric ring. Anyway, I'm happy with the final effect!

Sculptors

Sometimes, entire museums full of sculptures can be overwhelming and even repetitive. You can only stare at a few busts or nudes in various poses before moving on and walking quickly by. Some of the European museums are jam-packed with similar pieces, with only a few standouts (in my opinion).

I appreciated being ushered through a 2019 tour of the Hermitage Museum by a guide who planned to show us only the most important works of art in the vast collection. I always find myself hunting around for the Rembrandts!

I prefer a middle ground between classical marble statues and grand, ultra modern, abstract installations.

Penitent Magdalene
(1440), Donatello 

I recall learning about Donatello's (1386–1466) unusual wooden sculpture of the Penitent Magdalene (1440) in an Art History class in college. It rather reminds me of melting chocolate. More impressive is how he executed this 6-ft masterpiece without using a chainsaw; it wasn't invented yet!

Unfortunately, we missed the Museo dell 'Opéra del Duomo, where she resides, during our 2011 trip to Florence, Italy.

The Pieta (1498-99),
Michelangelo 

We did get to see Michelangelo's (1475–1564) David while visiting Florence. And, although we splined through the Vatican museums and the Sistine Chapel, the lines to get into St. Peter's Basilica were too long, so we didn't get to see the Pieta. Which one is your favorite?

David (1623-24),
Bernini

We missed Bernini's (1598–1680) marble David while in Rome. He's on display at Galleria Borghese. We also missed Donatello's David, which I studied in my art history class. Although Bernini's is more of an action  (sling) shot. I think I prefer Donatello's bronze version.

Degas (1834–1917), although best known for painting ballet dancers and racehorses, he also sculpted them. We saw examples of them at the Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek museum while in Copenhagen, Denmark in June 2019. See my May 2020 post, entitled Sculpture - Another Dimension of Art.

The Kiss (1882),
Rodin

While in Copenhagen, we also saw Rodin (1840–1917) sculptures, though I struggle to remember any. He never actually carved any of his sculptures, instead merely directing other artisans to create them, probably due to poor eyesight. Famous for The Kiss and The Thinker, it was so realistic that he was suspected of surmoulage --  casting directly on the model's body.

More impressive is the Palm Garden and Kai Nielsen's (1882–1924) Mother of Water  (1918-20) as its centerpiece.

Unfortunately, we missed the Auguste Rodin - Displacements exhibit in 2021.

The only Brancusi (1876–1957) sculpture that speaks to me is Suffering (1907), which currently resides at the Art Institute of Chicago. It's an expressive bronze bust of a child. Unfortunately, the image is copyrighted. The Institute is on my bucket list to visit.

King and Queen (1952),
Moore

Henry Moore's (1898–1986) bronze sculpture once resided in Glenkiln Sculpture Park, located in Dumfries, Scotland. While I'd been to Edinburgh, Scotland in 2017, we didn't visit its park either. Lots of sculpture to see all over the UK! My favorite park is Vigeland Sculpture Park in Oslo, Norway, where we visited in June 2019.

Spider (1996), Bourgeois

Surrealist & Feminist artist, Louise Bourgeois (1911–2010) created this creepy Spider sculpture in 1996. I wonder if she was consulted for creating Ron Weasley's nemeses in the Harry Potter movies?

Alexander Calder - In Motion Exhibit

Untitled, Calder

Three-dimensional art is seldom taught in school, which is a shame. Alexander Calder (1898-1976) spent his early years drawing in space using wire to create 3D artworks. He was always building things using whatever he could find, perhaps because his parents were both artists who moved around to follow their commissions and exhibitions. Born in 1898, he created his first kinetic sculpture in 1931.

Figure, Dog, Birds (1946), Joan Miro

Calder was part of a group of avant-garde artists including Joan Miro, whose 2D drawings curiously resemble Calder's wire sculptures.

Yellow Circle

My daughter got me tickets to see the Alexander Calder - In Motion exhibit at the Seattle Art Museum. I once discovered a painting by Calder, which was hung rather obscurely near the information desk at the Palm Springs Art Museum. This 2D painting from the In Motion exhibit is similar to the one I found in Palm Springs.

I hope to eventually encounter some of Calder's grand-scale steel sculptures, like this one, that have been installed around the world. I believe there is at least one here locally in the Olympic Sculpture Park!

I believe this one is a stabile, rather than a mobile that would be in motion, and called a kinetic sculpture.

The In Motion exhibit is worth visiting, especially when witnessing the scale and breadth of Calder's work. In-person viewing allows one to appreciate the size and spatial quality. Even the shadows are impressive!

In Paris, Calder became inspired by the effect light had on the colored rectangles tacked on the wall of Piet Mondrian’s studio. Apparently, this image led to his working with mobiles.

Other Innovative Artists

For more kinetic sculptures, see 7 Artist Who Created Innovative Mobiles -- Beyond Alexander Calder. I've placed these artists in chronological order by birth year, and selected specific images.

1. Marcel Duchamp (1887–1968):

Bicycle Wheel (1951),
Duchamp

While I prefer Duchamp's futuristic Nude Descending a Staircase (No. 2) from 1912, some of his other works are pretty puzzling.

2. Man Ray (1890–1976):

Le Violon d'Ingres
(1924), Ray

Ray used everyday objects, such as hangers (Obstruction, 1920), in his kinetic art, though he's more famous for his photographs that were considered works of art.

3. Alberto Giacometti (1901–1966):

The Nose (1949),
Giacometti

Giacometti was obsessed with human heads and tall, slender figurines. They remind me of something an art teacher would use as a first project for students to study posing human figures. He had an interesting face, but his sculptures were repetitive and rather primitive.

4. Bruno Munari (1907–1998) 

My Multi-faceted Jacks (2015)

Boo! My multi-faced jack-o-lantern from 2015 has creatively designed mini carvings on a single pumpkin. Munari designed human faces in his graphical drawings made up of shapes. See Multiple Identities of a Face.

5. Roy Lichtenstein (1923–1997)

Barcelona Head (1992),
Lichtenstein

The father of pop art, his sculptures in his brushstroke series are 3D representations of movement in the style of his 2D Op Art images. He used benday dots to make his art look machine-made. He apparently designed Five Brushstrokes sculpture in 1984, but it wasn't fabricated until 2010, long after his death.

6. Swiss artist, Jean Tinguely (1925–1991)

The Métamatic, Tinguely

Tinguely is famous for using motor-powered automation, for his 'Métamatic' machines that produce artwork.

7. Julio Le Parc (1928–)

Blue Sphere (2001/13),
Le Parc

Much of his art is more like Op Artist, Victor Vasarely than Calder. Again, it is perhaps the 3D representation of 2D Op Art.

Watercolor Artists/Teachers

...We Three Meet Again... (2003), Birdsall

I am inspired by the artwork around me, especially when I encounter multiple works by the same artist all in one place. At Fred Hutch's South Lake Union House, where we've been staying while my wife recovers from a stem cell transplant, I saw two watercolor works by Byron Birdsall.

The first of two paintings is of three birds in a snowy scene (probably Alaska). It's my favorite.

Giorno di Shopping in 
Monterosso, Birdsall

The second is a scene in a popular market on the Italian Riviera, and it looks like a photograph, until you get up close to it. 

Both were painted by Alaskan Watercolorist, Byron Birdsall (1937-2016). In a career that spanned 50 years, Birdsall painted thousands of watercolors/oils, including Alaskan scenes, panoramic landscapes, and even some portraits. I keep discovering more sprinkled around the apartment building.

Born in Buckeye, Arizona, he taught history for 6 years in California, then moved to Alaska to work in advertising, eventually taking up painting part time. Many professional artists, like Norman Rockwell, whose paintings were published in the Saturday Evening Post, worked in advertising.

Other artists who were also teachers:

White Bird of Paradise (1939)
O'Keeffe

American modernist painter, Georgia O'Keeffe (1887-1986), a student of Arthur Wesley Dow, also earned money for her own education working as a commercial illustrator and teacher.

She taught and continued her studies at the Teachers College, Columbia University. BTW, my mother grew up in NYC and lived in an apartment near the university. And my grandfather owned and operated a flower shop nearby.

O'Keeffe decided to become an artist at age 10, and received art instruction from local watercolorist Sara Mann.

O'Keeffe also taught and headed the art department at West Texas State Normal College.

Dead Rabbit with Copper Pot (1908)
O'Keeffe

This early O'Keeffe painting is reminiscent of Andrew Wyeth's Road Kill (squirrel). Both chose somewhat disturbing or unusual subjects. I apologize for the 'dark' image. I much prefer her modern colorful takes on closeups of flowers.

I and the Village (1911)
Chagall

Russian/French Artist, Marc Chagall (1887-1985) was also an early Modernist like O'Keeffe, although he is more commonly associated with movements: Surrealism, Cubism, Expressionism, Fauvism. Over 75 years, he produced more than 10,000 works. Probably his most famous painting is I and the Village (1911). In 2011, my family and I visited the Chagall Museum in Nice, France. His large artworks literally filled the walls!

He studied painting under realist, Jehuda Pen, and then in 1907 he went to St. Petersburg, Russia and studied art for three years with stage designer Léon Bakst.

Following WWI, at a war shelter in Malakhovka, Russia, Chagall taught art to Jewish boys. The school was once an orphanage for refugees.

The Blue Bird (1968),
Chagall

Chagall often included birds such as chickens and roosters in his dreamlike, symbolic, religious-themed surrealistic works.

Le Havre, The Port (1884). Boudin

I'm super thankful for Eugène Boudin, who taught Claude Monet and encouraged him to switch from drawing to painting outdoors. Check out Beach Scenes & Women with Parasols/Umbrellas, a post from June of last year, including some of my favorite Monet paintings.

Fishing Boats at Étretat (1885). Monet

I also appreciated the opportunity to visit Seattle Art Museum's Monet at Étretat exhibit in 2021. See my SAM Visit - Monet at Étretat post from August 2021 for more of Monet's beach paintings. Going to a museum is a great way to see multiple works by the same artist, especially at an exhibit in their honor.

My next tour will be the Alexander Calder exhibit at SAM next Thursday. I know, like me, he studied mechanical engineering but I'm unable to find evidence that he ever taught art. I'll continue researching for my next blog post.

Pumpkin Carving 2023

It's been a while since my last post. Still observing and appreciating art around me, but haven't been able to devote much time to creating art myself since late 2023, with my last works being carved jack-o-lanterns in October. I was inspired by binge watching the Star Wars television series about the Ahsoka Tano the Jedi. She is actually my second pumpkin carving of 2023.

For my first carving of the season I wanted to try out new eyes, specifically peeling concentric circles deeper and deeper from skin to flesh. It kinda turned into an owl, but it was inspired by my own version of Angry Birds.

I then tried emulating a witch face silhouetted against a harvest moon.

Not my best work!

I also did a more traditional jack-o-lantern face with sort of a batwing mouth, skeleton nose, and scary cat eyes. 

You may remember my scary cougar pumpkin, complete with whiskers.

For my final pumpkin, I found three howling wolves on a t-shirt design that as it turns out my nephew owns. While I often use black or red marker to sketch out my design, this time I used a black Sharpie to accentuate the wolves and add another value.

This technique was inspired by my niece who recreated a design found on a Halloween decoration containing a ghost with a black hat. I simply used the marker in a different way.

Tips for Creating Landscapes

Photo of the View from the top of Cedar Butte

When painting landscapes, I like to use a reference photo as a guide to help capture atmospheric and realistic detail. You may also find inspiration by painting outdoors (en plen air). Here's a photo I took at the top of Cedar Butte. See my September 2022 post, Painting Using MS Paint 3D -- How To.

My Paint 3D Landscape

I painted the background first, then added foreground elements such as bushes and trees later. For oils and acrylics, you may choose to lay down a darker color for the background and work up in value for the addition of clouds. For pastels, simply start with paper that is already a neutral (not white) color.

Use color temperature to create the illusion of depth. Add opposite colors to either cool down the color of mountains in the background or warm up the trees in the foreground. I chose to lay down bands of color in my background then framed the sky with an outline of the mountains. I chose a cooler purple for my mountains and gradually got warmer toward the foreground. My painting is brighter than the photo. Adding the trees over the background in contrasting dark green (instead of black) continued to elevate the overall temperature.

Bob Ross painting with a cabin

Create a focal point in your in the composition. This can be a barn or small outbuilding (palette knife comes in handy for the texture), or even a large, interesting tree. You may choose to make the barn stand out by using sharp contrast in colors or values and shading for more emphasis. This painting by Bob Ross would be fun to try in pastels.

Another Bob Ross painting using a palette knife
and a two-inch brush

Use the palette knife to add texture and crisp edges, Bob Ross used the edge of his knife to create water lines next to the shoreline and ripples in the water. It also helps create texture on snowy mountains. A large dry brush pulls down paint for the reflection. Then light, side-to-side strokes soften and blend for the illusion of water. His use of temperature in the rainbow-colored sky almost makes his composition like two different paintings.

Jeu and Bryce at Lake Sawyer
(2022), Patterson

Simplify the clutter (edit out unwanted details). Give the illusion of numbers, but don't try to paint every individual tree you see. Map out the overall shapes for the grouping of trees, then add just a few details. This is something that Impressionists like Monet mastered in suggesting a forest or line of trees.

Mary's Creepy Landscape

Try using a limited palette of colors and subtle variations between them. Use brighter, more saturated colors and more delicate brushwork for the focal point (compared to the rest of the painting). This one was done by one of my students at Franke Tobey Jones' Senior University. I'm guessing that the bright moon is the focal point. My favorite part is the turbulent water.

Beach in Pourville (1882), Monet

Embrace imperfection. You don't have to be completely accurate with values, colors, and structure as you would in a still-life or portrait. Impressionists like Claude Monet loved to paint beach scenes, often void of human figures, to create a mood and a soft composition of color. The only real value or shading comes in the cliffs framing the bottom right corner.

Landscape at Collioure (1905), Matisse

Employ timed sketches to improve your judgment. Practice painting on smaller canvases using quick sketches and limiting the time it takes to complete your painting. Famous artists used studies to plan the placement of elements, color scheme, and composition. It may also help you to decide when your painting is finished.

Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone (1872),
Thomas Moran

Let's finish with this spectacular landscape of the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone by Thomas Moran. I love the contrast between the foreground and sunlit canyon. He painted several versions of the canyon, capturing the scenic view in all four seasons.

My brothers and their wives visited Yellowstone recently while attending my daughter's wedding in Montana. Two trees frame the view of the watery focal point in this photograph by my sister-in-law.