I've always been fascinated by owls. This is a tawny owl, the females of which can grow to 45cm in length with a 100cm wing span. English folklore claimed that a child given an owl's egg to drink would be protected against alcoholism for ever! People used to nail an owl to their barn doors to ward off evil. Many cultures believe the owl to be the soul of the new-dead which is strange as a few years ago a wise old friend of mine died and the next day an owl came to perch on my garden fence, which I had never seen before. He stayed there for about 20 minutes as if he'd come to say goodbye! I used chalk pastels on pastel paper for this.