This is continuation of the making process of Neverland Portrait painting “Dragon” (that’s a shortened work title) of sisters Evija (age 8) and Adele (age 6). You can read the fairy tale created by the girls as well as the back-story in this blog post.
The ‘Dragon’ painting includes two owls. Thus my next step was to research this subject matter – symbolism as well as artworks by my favourite artists.
I read about owl symbolism on this website. However, I haven’t found much relevance to the fairy tale create by the sisters. Nonetheless, if you happen to be making artworks about owls, this might the article might be useful.
I found out that Pablo Picasso (1881-1973) was a big fan of owls. You might well know that he was incredibly prolific artist. Thus I found numerous paintings and sculpture of owls.
Joan Miro (1893-1983) also has made many artworks of owls.
Below are a few more artworks by modern artists such as Max Ernst (1891-1976), Paul Klee (1879-1940) and Leonora Carrington (1917-2011).
When it comes to the ‘Dragon’ Neverland Portrait painting, a sketch by Dorothea Tanning (1910 – 2012) was an inspiration to make Adele and Gabrielis appear as owls that are wearing ‘coats’. This metaphor could associate with the care and nursing of the owls towards the dragon. To remind you the narrative of the painting, the two owls came to heal an injured dragon in the forest.
In the picture below, you can see the detail of the final painting.
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