Driftwood Art - The Owl
A Great Horned Owl made using driftwood as the primary material. Other materials used are pine cone scales, spruce cone scales, pistachio shells, acorn shells, twigs, teasel spines, cedar tree bark, coconut shell, and back painted glass cabochon eyes. Mounted on a black wood base
Each one of my sculptures starts with a base or foundation piece of driftwood, which upon careful and often puzzling inspection is determined to look like a certain figure. The foundation piece for this sculpture was a long awaited one, the torso of an owl. Owls are amazing and being one of my favorite birds I had always hoped to find a piece of driftwood that looked like an owl. After finding the starting piece for this sculpture, I realized that I had the perfect thing for it's head, a coconut shell. I then added driftwood wings and the details on the head and face.
At this stage, I decided to diverge from my usual design techniques and take my use of other natural materials such as pine cone scales to an extreme level of detail. This choice was provoked by an earlier decision to use glass for the eyes, which is another diversion from my typical design rules. These two unique features were used to give a more realistic appearance to details, and although successful in giving an effective and interesting final product, I prefer to leave as much driftwood visible as possible, using the natural designs in the wood to provide the details. I also prefer to use only natural materials, so glass eyes will be a rare exception in my sculptures.
