March Tulips floral still life painting

March Tulips  Oil on wood  8" x 6"  $160.

The Elder painting of an owl profile

The Elder  Oil on wood  6" x 8"  $160.

Unlike humans, owls do not have eyeballs that rotate.  Luckily their heads are able to spin almost 360 degrees.  

Sanctuary Owl small wildlife painting of bird

Sanctuary Owl  Oil on wood  8" x 8"  $215.

This owl was the most photogenic of the bunch. Considering he was the only one the handlers had outside, it's not surprising. I'm really liking the borderline "illustrational" background coupled with realistic traditionally painted subject/owl.  Wanna do more of that in general, but maybe another painting of this owl too-before I move on to other subjects. 

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Indoor Owl a wildlife bird painting on pattern

Indoor Owl  Oil on wood  8" x 6"  $160.

Owl painting by Diane Hoeptner

Owl 3  Oil on wood  8" x 6"  $160.

Meadow Vole

This is Athena, a barn owl who lives at the Ohio Bird Sanctuary. Barn Owls prey upon the meadow vole which can be found in moist wetlands. Wetlands in Ohio are becoming scarce and so too, the population of barn owls.    

Owl small painting of an owl

Owl 2  Oil on wood  8" x 8"  $215.

Just like "writing what you know" is helpful to writers, so is painting what you know to artists.  At least a 100 reference photos were acquired at the bird sanctuary.  But now I find myself reaching for the images that depict what I "know" about owls...  (um, which isn't really a lot.) Anything deviating from my idea of them: round eyed, smart and stoic gets ruled out...  It feels different from painting cats (understatement) who I know very well. But I'm enjoying the process.

Owl painting Ohio Bird Sanctuary

Owl 1  Oil on wood  8" x 8"  SOLD

I've been wanting to paint owls for a while and when I found out the Ohio Bird Sanctuary was giving a lecture on owls featuring live owls (out of their cages!)-- I grabbed a camera and drove south to Mansfield.  Don't be surprised if you see more paintings of owls and birds of prey! 
Side note:  I think the patterned backgrounds I've done in the past really helped me "translate" the landscape background here...  to stay back!  I find landscape painting very difficult (and greatly admire artists who can do it!)  Painting it as a background was not so hard...  Really happy with this one.

If Charles Bronson was a cat...

Bronson  Oil on wood  8" x 6"  $160

I'm pretty sure he'd look like this.  

This kitteh waits for a forever home at the Cleveland Animal Protective League.

Mystery Purple Flowers Do U know what these R?

Purple Flowers  Oil on wood, 21" x 7"  NFS

It's hard to photograph black, much glare on these... Do you know what these flowers are?  If so, please let me know in the comments.

Poppy Fields decorative transitional paintings

Here's a peek at a pair of paintings from last year.  Each is 24" x 36."  They're very different from most of the paintings I post here--it's good to "shake the cobwebs out" on occasion--bringing big decorative paintings like this to completion does that for me! 

I'm doing a few similar paintings this week, hope to share those soon.  Also this week,  "Hoeptner Happenings" my quarterly newsletter!  It goes out on Tuesday.  If you haven't subscribed, now would be a good time, don't miss it.  Click here to subscribe.