In this section are copies of original works of art. All of them are dedicated to helping us live according to unconditional love and compassion, which is the foundation of our peaceful means of bringing true and lasting peace to all of God's creatures, whether they are human beings or other animals.
(Artwork - 084)
Tawny Owl
(Strix aluco)
The Tawny Owl is a medium-sized, round-headed, dark-eyed owl with various
subspecies found throughout parts of Eurasia, mainly in the temperate zone.
It is highly variable in colour, ranging from a fairly greyish-brown colour
to a rich rufous. I painted a bird from Holland (S. a.
sylvatica), sometimes called the Common Tawny Owl. I am not sure that any
would qualify as the most “tawny” of the owls, although the colour is one
that is loosely defined.
Anyway, I have shown the bird with its prey, a young Norway Rat (Rattus
norvegicus), also known as the Brown Rat. It is not native to Norway
but apparently originated in Asia (probably China) from where it has spread,
ubiquitously, around the world. Prey includes large invertebrates and
smaller vertebrate species, such as mice and voles, some birds and the odd
reptile, amphibian or fish.
This is the species famously referred to by Shakespeare in Act 5, scene 2,
of Love Labour’s Lost:
When all aloud the wind doth blow,
And coughing drowns the parson's saw,
And birds sit brooding in the snow,
And Marian's nose looks red and raw,
When roasted crabs hiss in the bowl,
The nightly sings the staring owl :
'Tu-who ;
Tu-whit, To-who ' - A merry note,
While greasy Joan doth keel the pot.
We had to learn that in school when I was a kid, but my teacher couldn’t
answer the question that was most important to me, what kind of owl has that
call? Those were the days before the internet, and when my
parents were struggling to find (and afford) books about birds not only of
my region, but around the world. The day I opened my first copy
of the Peterson Field Guide to the Birds of Britain and Europe as a
highlight of my then very young life, and when I looked up “Tawny Owl” in
the library, I had my answer. I finally heard the Tawny Owl for
myself, in Portugal, years ago. But interestingly it may be that the
call Shakespeare accurately transcribed into words is a call derived from
duet singing by a pair of Tawny Owls, with the female chiming in with her
“merry note” at the end.
The painting is part of a number of efforts I am making to try to use oil
paints on a wooden panel, in this case birch, after first applying two or
three coats of gesso, then lightly sanded, then coated with two or three
layers of acrylic, followed finally by oil paints.
The background is all invented, and trying to evoke a sense of light
bursting through the edge of a beech forest at the first break of dawn.
These owls are quite nocturnal, so showing one with prey in full daylight
would not be accurate.
While oils paints make the painting of detail difficult, they are fun to
work with, and I was happy to sacrifice some of the finer details for the
richness of colour that, however, my inept photography did not capture.
Copyright © Barry Kent MacKay
Barry describes himself as a Canadian artist/writer/naturalist.
See his website:
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