Reading has always been one of my favorite pastimes; since early childhood I remember my Father encouraging me to journey to the far ends of the world through the pages of a book. I am so grateful for that advice and continue to explore all sorts of different worlds and time periods while safely curled up in my armchair. One of my favorite genres is the mystery and like many others my first love was Edgar Allen Poe. If only I could re-experience the thrill of reading each of his stories for the first time! The Raven, The Tell-Tale Heart, The Gold Bug, Murders in the Rue Morgue; each one terrifying and exciting in it's own way. So when I decided to pay homage to some of my favorite writers from the 19th century for a series of paintings, the first one simply had to be of Edgar Allen Poe. I decided to keep them in a sepia toned palette, reminiscent of the daguerreotypes of the time. Since The Raven continues to be his most popular poem I favored that image but also incorporated a scarab, a heart and a black cat from his other stories into the background wallpaper. I am so excited to be working on these illustrations and am already up to my elbows in the second portrait of the series featuring Jules Verne!