Predators' eyes from the past

"Dinner Time," Snowy Owl, 6 x 6 acrylic on canvas

Sixty million years ago, owls were hunting in what is now Colorado. I learned that this week, searching for painting subjects.

The oldest owl fossil, a leg bone,  was dated from about five million years after the dinosaurs went extinct. An almost complete Skelton has been dated aat about 55 million. It was about five feet tall. The main difference in that bird and today's owls seems to be in its feet. It had an extra large toe talon, like Eagles, which is used to kill prey. Today's owls capture with their talons, but kill with their beaks.

 Throughout history, mankind has been snared by owls in mythology, religion and more. Their calls, their markings, their lives, their zoology, and especially their eyes, are captivating, even haunting.

"Breakfast time," Burrowing Owl, 6 x 6 acrylic, canvas

  They've always caught my attention, hearing them at night, seeing them on back roads or in trees, in zoos, in videos, and especially now that my daughter Dallas has two independent bookstores in Canyon and Amarillo, Burrowing Owl books,, both full of lots of owl images and models. 

 Thus today's two acrylic paintings, available this Thursday at my show as Edmond Vibes at The Vault, and thereafter at In Your Eye Studio and Gallery in Paseo Arts District.

Here's looking at you, but not as well as they do.

Believing in myths and magic

"Magic," 4 x 4 acrylic on gallery-wrapped canvas

Myths, Mystical creatures.  We live in a world not just of science and facts and human egos, but of the unexplained, the believed, the hoped for.

Of the mythical creatures we've conjured up or seen or dreamed of, the two most likely are dragons and unicorns, with perhaps mermaids third. They are real however in the sense they are products of human imagination and dreams, or fears or experience.

So here are two testaments to myths and magic, today's paintings.

"Passion," 4 x 4 acrylic on gallery-wrapped canvas

 Available next week at April 6   opening of Edmond Vibes at TheVault405, and thereafter at InYourEyeStudioand Gallery in  PaseoArts District.

I heard the owl call my name

      "The Hunter,," 6 x 6 acrylic on gallery-wrapped canvas

Owls have called my name.

 There's an old Northwest Native American  legend that if you hear an owl call your name, get ready to die. There's a wonderful book by that title about a missionary to the Northwest  who that happens to.

For me, though, the sound of an owl is life-giving.  Maybe they weren't calling my name?

Most recently, I heard what I thought was an owl on an afternoon walk in Hafer park. I hope it was not a person's fake technology.

More importantly to me now that ever is try daughter Falls Bell's Burrowing Owl Bookstores in Canyon and Amarillo, where you can find dozens, literally, of different owl images and c creations, and of course, books.

Before that though, I loved the sound of owls when camping out, or in even Oklahoma City, hearing them outside the window with my love.

I've read about them many times, about their sounds, their biologics, their behaviors, their interactions with us...always remind us that they are creatures of prey, of wonderment, of questions.

Thus today's acrylic, at Edmond Vibes next Thursday and thereafter at In Your Eye Studio and Gallery. 

Have you heard them call your name?

The texture of "faith"

"Faith," 5 x 5 acrylic on gallery-wrapped canvas, palette knives only

I grew up believing faith was what I was told it was, what I was taught. It was a definition, supported by  scriptures in various ways and and those you agreed with.

That was perhaps fine in youth and early adulthood, but it seemed to easy, especially when you studied the people of the Scriptures, learned stories of what the "faithful" of all beliefs endured through the centuries. 

I'm a slow learner, it's taken decades of questions and doubts and reading and failures and lessons and  fewer answers and living through ups and downs to even write this.

I don't pretend to define the word--I'm not sure that is possible. There are metaphors and comparisons and examples of those who are and were people of faith. 

But after I finished my morning reading today, I could say that faith has texture, texture acquired in a journey, experienced by living in the face of eternity. That's vague, I know.  It's only my description, not an answer or definition, and not peculiar to any belief. That's difficult for us Americans, used to being in control and children of exact answers in a computer age of science.

Another--universal and not just religious--description, not a definition, is in  Hebrews 1:1 "...faith is the assurance of things hoped for and the conviction of things not seen."

Thus today's painting, using only a palette knife to add physical texture to my attempt. Available Edmond Vibes, at The Vault April 6, and thereafter at  In Your Eye Studio and Gallery in Paseo Arts District.

Where you can see eternity

"Forever," 12 x 12 acrylic on gallery-wrapped canvas

"The prairie skies can always make you see more than what you believe."                                                           --Jackson Burnett, The Past Never Ends

"Out here there's the sky." That is my axiom as an artist, an adaption of Willa Cather's famous lines in Death Comes for the Archbishop. You can't grow up and live on the edges of the Great Plains,  or in them, and not know how they dominate and create the character of the vast land and its temporary residents.

It seems this is where you can see eternity...stretching and beckoning  beyond horizons on earth and atmosphere.  Always asking questions. What is beyond? Are humans really significant? Sky determines.

This week's painting tries to capture that magnitude of the  expanses in our existence. Thanks to friends who advised me on the skies of the painting. It took a week of mulling over possibilities to finish it.

Soon to be at Edmond Vibes, at The Vault April 6, and thereafter at  In Your Eye Studio and Gallery in Paseo.

"Elsewhere the sky is the roof of the world,                                                                                                            but here the earth was the floor of the sky." --Willa Cather

The Ides of April

"Adobe and Blues," 9 x 12 acrylic on canvas panel

The month is half over without a single blog post. It's been one zoo after another, with personal, business, art and family obligations. Little time to paint, and no impetus to blog.

But today I finished the second painting of the month, a commission gained during Edmond's first downtown Vibes event the first Thursday.

It had taken me at least three weeks to get ready for the event, buying materials and more to display my art inside Prime Time Travel on Broadway. That blog and photos are coming in next post today.

Because of the weather--wind with a capital W--the crowds were smaller, and I was glad I was inside. But in spite of virtually no sales, I met lots of people, learned a lot, had fun and gained this commission. 

I'll be more than ready for May 5th's session  outside on the sidewalk by Citizens Bank.

In the meantime, I completed this today, home again in my imagination in New Mexico, thinking of adobe and blue skies.

(Note, the sky is more a Georgia O'Keefe sky than here, cerulean blue,  because of the photograph).

Good Vibe-rations

"Edmond Icon," UCO's Old North in the Snow,  8 x 10 acrylic, gallery wrapped canvas 

Next Thursday, April 7,  I'm excited to be one of 70-plus visual artists and many performing artists  taking part in Edmond Vibes,https://edmondvibes.org/ , the first Thursdays summer arts festival in downtown Edmond, from 5 to 9 p.m.

Come browse and visit--I'm hosted by Prime Time Travel, https://www.primetimetrvl.com/ 18 N. Broadway this month, and they offer refreshments. The program is an event of the Edmond Fines Art Institute. https://edmondfinearts.com/

I will have more than 30 works of art displayed --watercolor, acrylics and oils-- inside their spacious foyer, priced from $35, and I'll be  painting a watercolor landscape that evening too. You can also view some of my unique Christmas cards and view some of my commissions.

That's the reason behind this latest acrylic, just completed and for sale April 7 during Vibes:  "Edmond Icon, " UCO's uco.edu historic Old North in the snow,  8 x 10 on gallery wrapped canvas.