Philipp Grein

Philipp Grein is a painter and an illustrator from Graz, Austria. He has a unique style of creating the nature inspired paintings in watercolors.  He forms the beautiful owls and other animals from the wild with fines lines in ink for adding details after the creatures have been created, what seems like, from dripped paint on top of the sprayed painted areas. His color palette often consists of black, shades of gray, bright yellow, orange and blue.

Book: Lots of Spots

Lots of Spots is a fun book with wide variety of birds and animals illustrated in paper cut collage illustrations by Lois Ehlert an author and illustrator of children's picture books. The book is a collection of 62 spotted creatures of the wild in Lois's charming signature style along side with short rhyming poems describing each animal.

For example the rhyme about the spotted owl from the book:

Unless there’s a girl owl

and he’s in pursuit,

a boy owl generally

won’t give a hoot.

Poem about the tiger:

Tiger stalks

With shiny eyes,

Then takes its prey by swift surprise.

The mixed media collages of critters from owls to lizards on a solid white background in brightly colored handmade paper and rich textures create interest among young readers who would like to read the book again and again. Available here.

Owl and Cat Mugs by Michelle Designs

These new quirky and fun mugs are by Michelle Allen of Close2myart who I follow on facebook. The mugs come in two designs - owl and cat, illustrated in Michelle's trademark style which is filled with vibrant colors and whimsical design patterns. I first saw the owl mug and thought "oh, I want it!", and later when I set my eyes on the cat mug, my thought was "I want them both!". We all know the story of the the odd couple but you'll agree they look perfect together here. Right? 

You can visit Michelle's online store to grab the one (or both) to enjoy your morning beverage or to give them as a gift. Each mug comes in a box of its own which is decorated in the graphic of the animal that's in the box.

Nits De MACBA

If you live in Barcelona then you must have seen these fliers in your area. Museum of Contemporary Art of Barcelona (MACBA) and Ruiz+Company designed these eye catchy event flyers featuring three different kinds of owls. The advertisement was designed for promoting Nits the MACBA when the museum doors were open till midnight for the summers months in 2010 enabling people to visit the exhibitions avoiding the damp weather through a special bus route. I love the clever advertisement that includes the nocturnal birds that are appropriate for the promotion of the night hours at the museum, plus it's a beautiful and bold artwork.

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Hannah Agosta

Stunning "Pet Owl" art print by Hannah Agosta. I can't stop staring at those gorgeous eyes of the owl and that heart shaped moon is lovely!