Owls, Owls and more Owls. Hi Everyone it has been a while since posting and it time to get back into it sharing my new art projects. This next week the art studio is getting a new quilting machine and that led to moving things around and then I remembered an art project I have wanted to do since last summer. So after several trips to the trash can and a lot of trips down to the basement and a new very large design wall- 10’x8′
I think I am ready. Will update about the quilting machine when it gets here. So last summer I was sitting outside by the river with our dog and it was just about dusk. 
From across the river out of the trees flew a barn owl and it buzzed the dog and lit in the tree over us. Then 10 barn owls flew thru the trees one by one. Some went up river some down river and others over our head. It was like watching a scene out of a Harry Potter movie. Very awesome and inspiring at the same time. So the idea for this new artquilt has been percolating since last August. I have decided to make it into three sections that will hang together. Each section will be around 30″ wide and 70″ long. 
That is why I now have a new design wall! When I was designing the wall I decided not to put flannel on it. If I leave the aluminum side out of the 1″ thick foam board it would be perfect to paint on. For some skies I want to paint the fabric on the top and let it run down. So of course the first part of designing is collecting the design pieces so here are some pictures I either took or found. 
Mapping out where to place my owls is tricky because I want them to be flying in all directions. I decided to pay attention to the rule of thirds and where my focal point is and the horizon line. I cut out different shapes from my newsprint and then pin them to background of newsprint that I have drawn the horizon line on. Then I can audition where the owls will be.. In this art project my idea is to make the owls the size I want and then proportion the trees, mountains and river to fit with owls. Usually I use greyscale pictures for reference and then pick the season my art design depicts. As I am designing it is important to work on how this piece is going to hang. Not sure about that yet either. But from experience I know that these parts seem to resolve later on in the design process. Well I am off today to take reference pictures for future art….will post them this week…K
