⚜️ UNDERSTORY: This piece began with a small snippet of waves and sky I came across in a book of historic patterns. I was surprised by how modern the swirling shapes looked, only to discover that the design was hundreds of years old. Apparently, people have been finding beautiful ways to make water and clouds move on a flat surface for a very long time!
I knew I wanted to explore that idea, and once again, I chose a local bird as my subject and set about finding her world. This time it was the Great Blue Heron, one of those magnificent, solitary birds that always seems to belong to a slightly different realm than the rest of us.
As the design developed, I began imagining a storm that had just passed. The waves were still moving, the clouds were beginning to clear, and there was the full moon peeking through—gorgeous and welcoming, as though reassuring the world that all was still well.
And there stood our heron, completely spellbound by the sight.
This is the second bird I've placed beneath a full moon, so apparently there is something about birds and moonlit nights that I find especially mysterious and magical. I suspect it won't be the last!
⚜️⚜️ AN OVERSTORY: Once I began the actual burn, the sky nearly sent me cross-eyed.! Unlike most of the piece, where I burned the lines and left the spaces between them, the sky required the opposite approach. I had to preserve every chalk line as the light wood and burn around it instead. That meant constantly reminding myself which parts were supposed to stay and which were supposed to go. One wrong move and a lovely little swirl could become something entirely different!
If I ever revisit this design, I think I’ll need to come up with a better way of marking what gets burned and what stays. My eyes—and my brain—would be very grateful.
