Owl: a script of sorts

Earth and charcoal in walnut oil on gesso and oak 12x24x24x2cms

In 2021-2022 Ibby was awarded a Natural Eye Bursary from the UK Society of Wildlife Artists. The aim of the project was to tell a story of land and life through the individual pellets of a barn owl resident on a local organic farm in Devon. Every month a fresh owl pellet was collected, dissected, and the contents carved onto a gessoed oak panel. The carvings of the bones were stained with time and site specific pigments collected from the different reaches of the owl’s range: earth from the hay meadows, pastures and woods, and charcoal made from the fallen twigs of the trees. Referencing ideas of more-than-human language and story, and in format recalling the medieval painting cycles The Labours of the Months, the work is a testament to a single owl, and the land and life on which she survives.