This is my first blog and the subject is on something totally different!
This journey for me started 22 years ago when a friend of mine called Andy asked me to listen to some music he had composed called 'On Wings of Eagles.'
It was based on the bible verse from Isaiah 40:31 which says 'Those who wait on the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up on wings like eagles, they shall run and not grow weary, they shall walk and not faint.'
He asked me to take a listen and see if I had any pictures from it.
I listened to the music and immediately had visions of pictures of the Eagle in 7 stages. I went back to Andy and shared with him what I saw and he smiled to say, 'That's right!' I sketched these out in my sketchbook making notes about what I had seen.
I didn't want to stop at the idea stage, but I wanted to get these ideas created. Eagles and clouds wasn't something I had any experience in drawing and painting so I started looking for some inspiration from different things I could find starting with the clouds...
I got some help from the photocopier and some tracing paper as these eagles weren't something I could draw freehand!
I was gathering ideas on how to put these things together and created lots of sketches developing the pictures I could see.
I didn't have any reference material that corresponded with what my images were so I put together a number of sketches that would help me put things all together.
Then I got started. The first image was the most dramatic and graphic - it came alive even more than I had seen it in my mind's eye when I painted the picture.
I then started picture number 2. But these pictures were much harder than I thought they'd be to paint - not only were they difficult technically, but personally too as they were giving images for struggles I was going through in my personal life too.
I started on number 3 but then decided to change tack...
So I decided to start at the other end of the journey and I painted number 7. This started out with a picture that I wasn't happy with so started to recreate it from there. Here is the first draft:
But this wasn't where it ended up so I reworked it - the final one is in the video version.
I went from there to do the 6th picture too, the Soaring Eagle. This one was the easiest of the lot!
This was as far as I got for many years. Things happened with my life and I ended up shelving the series.
Then in 2015 I decided to get painting them again so I went on to finish picture 3 and do 4 and 5 too. I shared the pictures with a friend of mine called Jeremy and he had a whole series of words to add to the pictures that enhanced what I was seeing. This then got shelved for another few years.
Then in 2020 I made the final push to photograph the series and put it all into a movie. Here are the final images and I've added the images from the final 2 in the series onto my products too. Here is the link to have a peek:
https://amanyadesign.com/collections/on-wings-of-eagles
At last the vision is complete - I hope you like it!
Here you go, have a look...
Love Anna
