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| Athene Noctua, acrylic on canvas, 14 x 18 |
This project began last October when Celeste asked me to make a painting about the goddess Athena. I knew that I wanted to use symbolism to convey the goddess. I had an idea to paint the Athene Noctua (Little Owl), as this is the owl that is especially sacred to the goddess Athena and that is depicted in all the ancient Greek artwork. I wanted the owl nestled in a great olive tree, as this tree is also one of the goddess's symbols. In the morning on my way to work, I observed a crescent moon with points facing completely upward. As the upwards crescent is also a symbol of the goddess, I knew I had to paint the moon this way. I made a quick sketch in my sketchbook, and planned to follow this basic design.
I was hit with a personal tragedy and had some trouble creating artwork. I was able to make my background, which I decided should be abstract and made of colors I associate with the goddess. I wanted to show a gradation of dark to light. Here is my process:
I used a white gel pen to draw my sketch directly on top of the canvas. I tried using a charcoal pencil at first, but it was too dark and I knew I would have trouble seeing it when I painted. The white gel pen is great to sketch with on such dark backgrounds, as water or even varnish makes it dissolve to nothing. I placed my canvas in the closet and left it there until January.
When I finally began working on the painting again, I started with the tree, then the crescent moon. I painted the owl, using several reference photos but not directly using any one photo as a model. After I made a good sketch of the owl, I painted it over in a beige color so that it would be easier to paint on top of that dark blue background. Then, I was ready to start painting my actual owl. The owl I came up with was a little bit on the round side. Interestingly, it reminds me of a painting I did of a Saw Whet owl in high school:
I suppose this shows that while techniques improve, essential style can remain the same. One thing I've learned since then: always paint the background first!
A problem I had when I finished my Little Owl was the moon. Whenever I see a crescent moon in the sky, I can see the dark side of the moon. I wanted to convey this in my painting, but I didn't want to cover up my background too much or use any opaque paint. I solved the problem by putting a coat of gloss varnish over my painting. Before I varnished, though, I carefully drew the full circle of the moon with dark blue paint and a small paint brush over my charcoal moon sketch. I didn't want to lose the perfect circle when I put the varnish on. When the varnish dried, I put a few layers of dark blue glaze over the dark part of the moon. I also added some details to the visible part of the moon to make it more three dimensional and realistic.
I placed three coats of satin varnish over the painting and completed the project.
