My 'spirit animal', the owl

There was once an owl

Who lived in a wood,

The more he saw,

The less he spoke.

The less he spoke,

The more he heard.

Why can't we be

Like that wise old bird?

For some reason, this rhyme has stayed with me since childhood. Then a friend gave me a 10cm tall porcelain owl as a gift, which started off my collection of owls. I now have them in glass, metal, leather, paper, plastic, cane, wax, volcanic stone ... some bought during my travels, and others were gifts.

A part of the collection sits in a display case below the coffee table at home. Put together, you see all at once how different artists have rendered this one bird in their own way. No matter what they are made of, it's their eyes, always the eyes, that grab your attention first.

It was Rachael who first referred to the bird as my 'spirit animal', so the headline is from her. I was, naturally, drawn to the owls in my Harmony of Colour book, so here are two of them.

I kept to shades of brown for this owl, and let
 the colours rip with its dream-catcher.  

Once again, a study in browns. I really should
open my mind to other colors instead of keeping it so real.