A Parliament of Owls

What calls to me? Is it a… hoot?

Sep 24, 2024

A group of owls is called a parliament, yet parliaments aren’t known to be wise and owls aren’t known to gather in large numbers. Thanks for letting me get that out of the way.

Short or tall, cute or regal, with or without ear tufts (“plumicorns”), owls are one of my favorite birds. I’m enchanted by their distinctive shapes, their huge, forward-facing eyes, and their elegant, silent flight, like smoke on a breeze.

So whenever I paint them, I try that much harder to get them right. I chat with my owls (inside my head) as they emerge from the paper. I fret more than usual if I botch a feather or a foot. And when I’m done, I look at their paintings fondly, regardless of how they turned out.

What Calls to Me

The first owl I ever painted was a barn owl, an unplanned addition to a dark background that was originally just for practice.

“Ghost of the Forest,” Barn owl, Watercolor on hot press paper

To make sure the owl was visible, I ended up using copious amounts of white watercolor. White is often frowned upon by watercolor “purists” because of its relative opacity. I was pretty new to painting at the time, though, and didn’t know this.

Now that I do know… I still use white watercolor. There’s no way to achieve certain effects without it. I just understand when I should try to preserve the white of the paper instead.

It’s another lesson in why there’s no right or wrong in art, only what works and doesn’t. I love this painting for that reminder.

Branching Out

“Pinnacle,” Short-eared owl, Neocolor II on mixed media toned paper

As I wrote about in my previous post, I’ve started experimenting with Neocolor II watersoluble crayons. This is my third full painting using them.

While I’m happy with the composition and the owl’s face, I wish I’d done a better job with the owl’s chest feathers and some of the branches. I could have merrily reworked these areas until the paper started to pill (ok, disintegrate) but managed to stop myself in time.

A quick digression: Sometimes I receive comments that worry I’m being too critical of my work. It’s possible. But I almost never feel bad about myself, even when I’ve created “bad” paintings. Articulating what I need to work on helps me improve, and this is true no matter where I’m at in my journey. Onwards!

Heh. Heh. Heh.

Behold this tiny owl with his adorably insane expression.

“The Gift,” Screech owl, Neocolor II on cold press paper

“You look like you could use a mealworm. Here, you can have mine. Go on, take it. No, please, I insist.”

Yes, this is the kind of deep, inner conversation I have with my subjects while I’m painting them.

The owl’s name is Sassafras and he’s a resident of the Cincinnati Zoo. As you can see, he likes to offer bug gifts to his keepers, one of whom was kind enough to share a photo. Trying to capture the essence of little souls like this one is both a challenge and a delight, and a good reason why I paint.

So there you have it. I’ve painted owls three times so far, which is a lot considering how small my body of work still is. I hope to paint many more!

Thanks for being here,

Jean S. Kaiyou

P.S. One last note on white: The feathers around Sassafras’s beak are the white of the paper. I masked, lifted, and painted around those feathers to keep them bright.