Hello there, and hope you're thriving in your corner of the world.
This week's tale, is, I promise you, unusual, (for me, anyway).
How This Barn Owl Came to Be...
You see, I suspect that there's a weird myth out there about how things get created.
The myth
It goes something like this. Artist/designer/insert name of other creator here, spends each day in a haze of glorious inspiration, effortlessly "bringing through," phenomenal pieces of work, always inspired by an ever-obliging muse.
That's the ideal, and inspiration *does* feel wonderful. In fact, it may be a (healthy) addiction to inspiration and flow that keeps anyone going in this kind of field.
The reality, however is often a lot less glamorous, and may involve anything from feeling totally uninspired by grey November weather, to shouting in frustration at a website as it refuses to upload your image for the umpteenth time (ask me how I know..:-) ).
However...
However, in this case, there was a fair bit of rare magic involved. Which is perhaps, fitting for a creature as mystical as a barn-owl.
For a start, my one and only real-life encounter with one of these magnificent creatures was the wonder of its silent flight across the lane in front of our car, in the dead of night, almost two years ago.
For various reasons, that night also changed my life. (So maybe some of the association between barn owls and transformation has legs).
So, there was the real inspiration. And this week, almost two years later, the image and essence of Barn Owl came so strongly into my mind that I could almost sense its silent flight, from that inner image alone (if that makes any sense at all).
Far from being an elusive muse, the image felt alive, and even had views on how best I should complete it. (And yup, I guess that betrays that I do talk (and listen!) to some of my paintings. But honestly, it's those ones that seem to turn out the best...)
It stayed longer than I'd bargained for...
This determined barn owl soul only flew out of my mental space when it had expressed itself in full as a painting *and* been properly distributed (that last part being hand-on heart, something I don't always do as much as I should).
So that's why this bird (started in traditional watercolour, made extra bronzy with metallic watercolour, and then given his or her night sky in several digital layers) was rather special. (And appears in all the places and products scattered through this blog post).
And so...
And so, the unusual twist in this tale, is that yes, the wonderful, flowing, inspirational feeling of doing the bidding of a friendly but exacting (in this case feathered) muse does exist after all, it seems.
Will I be relying on it in future? Absolutely not.
But if a kind and happy part of nature wants to pay a visit in this way again, I'm very open to the experience, and promise to do my very best, both for them and the people (maybe like you, and if so, *thank you*) who want them in their lives too.
Finally...
I hope you enjoyed this strange-but-true tale. And as ever, thanks so much, both for being here, and for reading down this far.
More soon.
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.png "Back cover of the 2025 calendar")
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.png "\"The Butterfly Bush\": July's Calendar Image")
.png "\"Bright Yellow Daffodils\": March's image")
.png "\"Nasturtiums\" (the image for October)")
