“The Great White Owl” Painting Donated to The Hardy Gallery’s Community Mosaic Project

Debra Sloan Gerard donates The Great White Owl painting to The Hardy Gallery’s Community Mosaic Project. This is her second year donating a small painting (6” x 6”) to this project.

This painting along with 300 other small paintings will be on display at The Hardy Gallery, P.O. Box 324 Ephraim, WI 54211, from July 12 - August 25th, 2024. The purpose of The Community Mosaic Project is to raise awareness of the visual arts by reaching out to the community of all ages and abilities to create art on these 6 x 6 inch canvases which are randomly sold throughout the exhibition for $35 which raises funds for the gallery and include the cost of shipping the artwork to the buyer.

Artist Statement: Hardy Gallery Community Mosaic Project 2024

This little acrylic painting, called The Great White Owl, symbolizes for me, life’s major transformations. In many traditions, encountering a white owl signifies personal change, growth and introspection. The white owl was sacred to the Greek goddess Athena, the goddess of wisdom and strategy, while Native American mythology treated this bird, and dreams of the White Owl, as a source of vision and insight.  My own big life changes and the beauty of the Snowy Owl are what inspired me to paint this symbol of wisdom and change.

Using a multi-layered painting process, this painting is started with a series of idea sketches. The final sketch being transferred to the canvas using graphite paper. Then, the first darker layers of paint colors are laid in, next the medium hues and finally the lightest colors are placed last.

After seeing The Great White Owl, could there be a transformation coming in your life soon?