The Owl and the Pussycat

A book you can walk inside

I woke up thinking of how much I like printed books. So during breakfast I drew, using blue fountain pen ink, an Owl in a tree reading.

Another morning I woke up tired and I remembered being a kid and spending most of my day up in my grandmother's pear tree reading my library books. So I drew a cat in a tree reading.

The reason I picked an Owl character and a Pussycat character for my morning sketchbook time this week is because I'm focused, during the afternoons, on framing a series of paintings I've done which were inspired by the poem “The Owl and the Pussycat” by Edward Lear.

Here's a look at a just-framed painting on my work table (and here is a link to a blog post describing the thoughts in my mind as I worked that day).

In addition to the poem inspired series of paintings I've also handwritten the entire poem using a dip pen and ink on a 24 x 36 inch board. All of my artworks (and the piece being created in this video) will be exhibited via the Caplan Art Designs gallery. The first exhibit is at the winery Burnt Bridge Cellars during the months of June and July 2025 (opening party, First Friday June 6) and a second exhibit is at the Caplan Art Designs gallery in October 2025

Here's the video of me at work:

Here's the finished work that was in progress in the video.

For much of my professional fine art exhibiting life I've thought of my art exhibits as storybooks you could walk around inside. This approach to art exhibits has deepened as I've worked with Storyberries.com to share my kid's books worldwide¹. I began to make exhibit albums to accompany each of my exhibits which could also become printed books and ebooks for children. Kid's need fine art too in my opinion.

The current times being as stressful as they are for my exhibits this year I wanted to create an artwork, and a book, that would hopefully be comforting and fun for adults, who might remember the poem from childhood, and of course enjoyable for children too.

As I've worked towards my exhibit I've imagined my adult friends, holding a glass of wine at Burnt Bridge Cellars, and walking about the winery smiling while reading and looking at my depictions of the poem stanzas. Or I'd think of my adult friends with kids or grandkids who might enjoy sharing my art with their young ones - while also enjoying an adult beverage. Thinking those thoughts has helped me keep going!

Here's a look at the cover of the book version of my exhibit, aka my latest book you can walk around inside! You can see a free preview in the link here.

I will share more later. Right now I'm tired and will take some time off to read a novel.

I hope you have a comfortable place to sit and read this weekend too!²

Thank you, to all of you, for your ongoing patronage and support of my work! I appreciate every one of you! If you're a newly paid subscriber please feel free to access or download any or all of the 24 ebooks that I've written and illustrated which you can download and access anytime you wish from this index page.
Thank you again for being here!! 💚💚

1. From my author page on Storyberries.com there are 24 of my children's books available as free ebooks here (scroll to the bottom of this link to see all of my titles): https://www.storyberries.com/author/sue-clancy/

2. Here's a delightful article about the pleasure and importance of taking time to read books:

The Reading Rebellion: One Book. Two Weeks. Repeat.