“Judgement Seat ~ Barred Owl,” an original acrylic painting, copyright artist Susan Walton, of S. A. Walton Studio, Hudson, Florida.

My art studio sits in the encircling arms of a slough full of cypress, sweet gum, magnolia, and holly, on the Gulf side or “Nature Coast“ of Florida. This means that it is my pleasure to hear a pair of highly vocal barred owls nearly every evening. These curious hunters aren’t too difficult to call in closer, even by my admittedly awful imitation of their “Who cooks for you, who cooks for you aaaaaaaaaaall” call. The barred owl is a bird with a Southern drawl, and it hunts a surprising variety of foods, not just the expected small rodents, but frogs, snakes, crayfish, and bats, too.

One evening, while waiting for the usual spectacle of wild turkeys flying up to roost in our long leaf pines for the night, and while watching bats making frantic circuits in the sunset sky overhead in pursuit of unseen flying insects, a neighbor put his calling skills to work for us by holding a raucous conversation with an owl that was far up the slough. It wasn’t long before the owl began to move toward us, pausing now and then to chat.

Within a few minutes, it landed roughly on a power pole and looked us up and down. Clearly disappointed that there were no owls in our company, it took off again, but not before I had a chance to snap some blurry photos of it.

Later that night I did a quick sketch from memory, and instead of the power pole, I sketched it as it would look if it were perched on a vine or winding limb in the fork of interesting tree that I had seen in the swamp.

In the painting that evolved from the sketch, lichens grow on the bark of a southern magnolia on the left, including the rosy-red Christmas Lichen that is so common in Florida swamps. This tree is adorned other lichens, as well as with resurrection fern; and you can tell that it has rained not long ago, because the ferns’ fronds are a lively green and are fully unfurled.

The tree on the right side of the painting supports a trumpet vine, a native plant of the American Southeast. This nature scene is further enhanced with delicate wild orchids, Encyclia tampensis, growing on the tree behind the owl; in Florida these usually bloom in June. In the background is a stunning magenta, violet purple and blue sky with emerging stars, while the last rays of the setting sun gild the limb the owl is perching on in a warm, golden glow.

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