I always enjoyed painting on small canvases, and I have always done it on and off even though people rarely go for super small artworks.
Raven’s Gift (the title) is a super small artwork. Just 8″ x 10″ on stretched canvas.
A stylized raven on a field of green carrying a faceted pink heart.
Rose quartz was what was in my mind while painting it, but it could really be any sort of pink stone you wish to think of it as.
So… is the raven carrying this gift to someone? Has someone given this gift to the raven? Neither and both could be true at once. My intentions when starting this one I shall keep my own.
I can say that for once it started with this title as the working title, and it stayed that way. I doubt that can be said of even one in thirty of my paintings.
Usually I have a working title that I go with during creation, then when it is done I scrap the title and think on it long and hard before coming up with some stupid thing to call it.
Truth is, I hate giving titles to paintings and rarely did until the internet pretty much demanded it of my when it came to listing and selling my work on various websites.
In the pre internet days my paintings often were listed by date. Example 8-12-2025-1 would be how I cataloged this one because it is the first finished piece of the day on that (this) date.
As for it’s size… a cool thing is that many art aficionados like to cover their walls nowadays and also many people live in smaller apartments and such in cities. This has caused people to be more into both originals and prints of smaller sizes.
Most of my print sales and a lot of my originals tend to go to European countries. This is especially true of the smaller sized pieces.
My art has never been extremely popular in the USA and many Americans often put value on size rather than quality or meaning. They are also often more focused on the picture as a design than what it says.
This piece I titled Raven’s Gift has symbolism in it, but nothing to shake foundations. Maybe some prints will sell in the USA.
Nah… doubt it. At least not many.
Italy, Spain, Czechia, Greece, and lately Latvia have been my friends.
Still, I market to my fellow Americans. I’m a stubborn guy. I hope someday that art becomes as important in the USA as it is in other countries, and that Americans become more involved in collecting and appreciating art.
For those few who do… You can get prints of this small painting on canvas via LaidigArts.com – Raven’s Gift Small Canvas Print
As I end this post and tell not the meaning of the painting or why it is titled Raven’s Gift I shall leave you with a three poems that created themselves as I painted this. The first one holds the same title, but all came about during the process of the painting.
Raven’s Gift
The raven alighted where branches divide
With nothing but silence and darkness for guide
It saw on the earth a token of grace
And lifted it gently with solemn embrace
Then left in return a jewel of thought
A gift from the wild where barter is naught
And more than the trinkets, the raven’s own hue
Was gift to the heart that silently knew
Gift In Mystery
It came to the clearing with eyes like the night
It took up a gift in the glimmering light
Then left on the moss what no price could command
A treasure not crafted by cunning of hand
And more than the tokens it silently gave
Its presence was gift for the hearts that are brave
No pact was inscribed, no deceit was involved
But mysteries deep were entirely solved
The invisible Gift
The raven received and the raven bestowed
Yet never inscribed an invisible code
It acted with silence as covenant true
And rendered a gift in the deepest of hue
No token could match what its being conveyed
No cunning contrived and no treachery played
It passed like a phantom through corridors stark
And left in its shadow an infinite mark
That’s the end… Don’t forget you can get prints of this small painting on canvas via LaidigArts.com – Raven’s Gift Small Canvas Print