Magic Crow

I find that as I paint I get closer and closer to my subject. Whether it’s a crow in flight, the inclination of a woman’s head or the stateliness of a stag, after hours and days of close observation my subject starts to breath and comes alive. 

This creative dialogue is mystical and mysterious. It’s something that makes me pick up a paintbrush, a desire to get to the essence, the source, the soul of whatever I paint and then share that with the world.

I’ve been working on this particular crow oil painting for many months and I’m only now beginning to feel we’re finally on our way to somewhere special.

Last week in the studio, as the sun came from behind a cloud, a ray of sunlight fell magestically across the work. I was stunned, it felt like my crow and the natural world were as one. It felt magical.

I don’t know yet exactly how this painting will turn out, yet this beautiful illuminated moment in its creative history was just magical – and I just managed to capture it in a photograph before the sun went back behind the clouds.