Following the ACEO series of winter birds I started last year, I completed another set of art cards featuring owls. Collectively, a group of these birds is called a hoot, or a parliament of owls.

Owls have fascinated and frightened people for centuries – because most of them are nocturnal they were associated with the supernatural. It was common superstition in the olden days that an owl landing on your house was an omen of imminent death. Nowadays, many people see owls as symbols of wisdom and great knowledge. There is so much folklore surrounding owls across different cultures, some of which pertain even to specific species.

To chose five species to illustrate this for this series, I picked ones that were visually distinct, and planned for each painting to have a different color scheme so that the entire set displayed well together. Owls camouflage with their environment so their feathers are just varying degrees of grey, white or brown. Therefore, I had to invent more vibrant versions of them while keeping the colors feeling natural. Here are some preparatory sketches and paintings.

The most difficult part of each painting were the eyes – inaccurate brushstrokes on their avian eyeliner or an off-center pupil made the owl look goofy. These paintings are 2.5″ x 3.5″, so their eyes were tiny – which is why I practiced painting the Eurasian Eagle Owl twice before doing the real one – black and white eye makeup and eyebrows!

Next came the task of researching and writing the short pieces of fact and folklore for the backs of the printed cards. My favorites are Duncan and Flaco.

The whole point of making these art cards is to share my artwork in a portable physical format, so I sent out these Owl cards to my Snail Mail Club members. For the next series I am planning to do songbirds. You can learn more about the monthly subscription below:

For the first time ever, I brought my bird art cards to the public at a local market event. I was so happy to see that they made people smile and that the extra writing on the back of the cards were appreciated as well.

Thank you to the folks who brought pieces home and also to you for being part of this newsletter.

I would love to know which is your favorite owl or if it’s one that I slept on (in case I decide to make another hoot of owls in the future)!