Cover Art for our Next Album

I have a small drawer where I keep Crow Women-related papers and other items. In early 2018, it was getting way too full and needed to be cleaned out. There were a lot of song words that I already had multiple copies of. So most of those went to recycling. But I also found a drawing I’d done years before of two crows – one holding a wine goblet and one holding a candy cane, suggesting the drawing was done around Yule.

The discovery came just as I was wanting a temporary change from the desert or mountain landscapes that I usually paint. For years the Crows have done a fall weekend retreat that involves lots of wine, good chocolate, and good food along with enhancing our sisterhood, doing ritual, singing, and having our fall business meeting. That quickly became the inspiration for this painting, called “Kroze on Retreat.” Those familiar with our coven know we spell Crowwymmyn many different ways, the more imaginative the better, thus the spelling on the painting title.

I re-did the original drawing with the relevant food and drink items which I painted as realistically as I could. The painting needed a third crow in the center, so I added her. The candle with the nice drip pattern is one left over from a ritual, although the real one is blue. Glass is tricky. The reflections and see-through colors change with the lighting and whatever is behind the item. It’s sort of anything goes as long as it looks right in the painting. The mountain background is from one of our retreat locations.

This painting was great fun. In late 2018 I did another one in the same style, inspired by another old drawing that came out of the drawer – two crows perched on the rim of a cauldron filled to overflowing with a green concoction, and the bottles and jars of ingredients. That one was fun too.

Currently, I’m painting a Crow on a crescent moon, another painting in my Krow series.

“Kroze on Retreat” has been chosen as the album cover art for our third album, which will come out this spring. The theme of the album is pagan celebrations of the seasons. The painting has the festive air of the feasts that we enjoy after our Sabbat ceremonies. Besides, everyone thought it would make a fun album cover.

We are fundraising right now to pay for the recording and manufacture of the new CD. You can go to our GoFundMe page if you’d like to donate to the cause. One of the thank-you gifts, for those donating $200 or more, is a limited edition print of my painting “Krose on Retreat”, and you get a signed copy of the CD as well.

In addition to being a talented visual artist, Carole is the composer of two of the tracks on Album Three: Beltane Spirits Come to Us, and Warrior Woman.