A Painting a Day - Day 53

For the Halloween theme I had to sit and think of what I wanted to do for today's painting. First I thought of a black cat, but it just wasn't feeling right today. A picture of a blue jay lay on my kitchen table and I recalled that blue jays are related to crows so I looked up a picture of a crow in a bird book. A page over was a picture of a raven. I had no idea they were so huge by the way and are not here in Indiana. But I then thought of the poem by Edgar Allen Poe and who better to recall at this time of year than that famous writer and poet of macabre stories and melancholic poetry.

Here is a little bit of the poem to have as reference for this illustration.

'Open here I flung the shutter, when, with many a flirt and flutter,

In there stepped a stately Raven of the saintly days of yore;
Not the least obeisance made he; not a minute stopped or stayed he;
But, with mien of lord or lady, perched above my chamber door—
Perched upon a bust of Pallas just above my chamber door—
                Perched, and sat, and nothing more.

Then this ebony bird beguiling my sad fancy into smiling,
By the grave and stern decorum of the countenance it wore,
“Though thy crest be shorn and shaven, thou," I said, “art sure no craven,
Ghastly grim and ancient Raven wandering from the Nightly shore—
Tell me what thy lordly name is on the Night’s Plutonian shore!”
               Quoth the Raven “Nevermore.” '

Thanks for coming to see my art again today. This 8 x 10 illustration is available for sale for $50. If you would like to purchase it, please email me at lauraparkhurstillustrator@gmail.com. The first person I hear from can buy it. Hope to see you again tomorrow.