Title: “Tawny Owl with Egg (floral map)”
Artist: Michael Autumn
Medium: Hand-drawing with digital gouache
Giclée archival print on fine 100% cotton canvas (matt)
Hahnemühle Art Canvas Smooth 370gsm + Hahnemühle UV protection matt varnish
Size: 36″ (W) x 50.9″ (H), canvas stretcher 38″ (W) x 53″ (H)
Edition: Limited Edition of 101
Authenticity: Hand-signed (front, bottom, far right on white canvas border) with graphite pencil (varnished over with same UV-protective matt varnish as whole) and titled (front, bottom, centre on white canvas border)
Date: 03/2024
TL;DR
This artwork is an homage to visual perception – it’s about how we detect meaning from the millions of individually coloured photons entering our eyes – and how I, as an artist, can trick you into seeing what I want you to see.
Tawny Owl with Egg (floral map) is the simple colouring-in (albeit very carefully selected and juxtaposed colours) of a flat line drawing I did previously of this art puzzle design (see the photo of that artwork below and this post: Tawny Owl with Egg (Art Puzzle)).
I used this technique to regularly check for line breaks (where there shouldn’t be any), and to get a better view of the shapes of the individual pieces I was designing – amid a sprawling mesh of simple black thin lines on a white background. This got me to thinking about the difference between the dumb mechanical process of colouring a shape (of a flood fill) and true animal (human) understanding…
This is (obviously!) part of my floral map series. See Guillemot with Egg (floral map) for details.
Diary Of An Artist 