The Owlings portrait of two sisters in watercolor : Magical Realism painting

This is my new painting, titled “The Owlings”

This lovely whimsical painting was inspired by a folk-style portrait of two girls I saw from the 1800’s.

It was a tradtion in former times for parents to place a coral necklaces on children as coral was thought to protect the wearer from ill health and harm.

I love the style of Magical Realism painting, where is the subject matter is often blurred between realism and a strong nuance of the quirky or magical.

This painting is primarily done in watercolours, with touches of gold, silver and coloured pigment ink.

I particularly enjoyed painting the two sisters, as it is a dedication to my own sister and the beautiful spirit of sisterhood…

….who knows what they, and their little totem owls within their arms are thinking?

Paintings like this one are so very special that I only release a small amount of print reproductions of them. The edition of this size print of the painting is only 50 prints and is available for sale here.

The original painting is also for sale – please contact me for more information. Thanks for visiting !

Portrait Painting Progress….

This is the painting of Maggie so far – in my previous post I described the beginnings of this work.

Here, I have layered the watercolour on Stonehenge ivory paper, and filled in more details, like the fairy by the peony top right, and the cats. I have begun to blend the dried flowers in with painted flowers, too. I will be doing more of this, as well as filling out her hair, adding more small details and subtle highlights. What I love to do is basically free-form the painting; I have an idea of colours and composition, but mostly it’s a process of playing with the paint, with the flow and feel of the painting….you can click on it to view it closer up.

A new portrait commission, and other portrait pieces…

I am always honoured to be able to paint someone’s portrait. To me, capturing the essence of a person within a painting is not only a wonderful creative expression, but also an intimate journey into their soul…

This is the beginnings of a portrait of Maggie, a wonderful customer who was inspired by my Flora Fairy painting and loves flowers and her two cats, so asked if I could blend all of these together and create a portrait of her. As with the Flora painting, I am using dried pressed flowers I have gathered on my journeys around the world, and overlaying them with watercolours. The overall feel is ethereal, whimsical and delicate. You can click on it for a closer view.

Here are a few examples of portrait styles I have done over the years :

I love doing almost any kind of commissioned artwork, especially portraits. I prefer not to be too attached to defining the realism of the person ~ rather, I draw from my style which uses a quality of magical realism to enhance the uniqueness I see in my subject matter.

If you are interested in having your portrait painted, please contact me for further information on the process, prices etc. I would be very happy to hear from you!

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emigre

preliminary to a painting

watercolour & pencil.

Siamese Cat Painting

Siamese Cat Picture

I have just finished this little Siamese Cat portrait  ~ I liked using the patterns and colours to compliment this cat’s eyes and markings – the painting is watercolour on beautiful Stonehenge smooth ivory paper which I always love to paint and draw on.

It will be available soon as a pocket mirror and a print- keep an eye out! If you would like to see more cat designs and jewelry, check out my other Cat Art

DARKNESS and DREAMS…

For some time now I have been meaning to compile a sketch of things that have created some artistic ideas for me.

I’ll start off with an old painting of mine which I did nearly 10 years ago, while living in London…

I was walking around Covent Garden on my lunch break and popped into what looked like a small but interesting photographic exhibition down one of those alluring London alleyways.

The exhibition was of black and white photography by a young and very talented woman, Francesca Woodman .

I had never seen anything like what I saw in this gallery that day…it was visually so evocative and strange, yet dreamily familiar; it all resonated so strongly within me – especially since, at 22 years old, she was nearly my age when she took her own life…

Tragic, but also another facet of the incredible emotional power of her work.

I often struggle to put into words what moves me to create, and the symbolism contained within my paintings. It is equally as hard to express why another’s art moves one , but here goes :

Francesca Woodman: Space 2
Providence, Rhode Island, 1975 – 1976

Francesca Woodman: It must be time for lunch now 1979
25.4cm x 20.3cm

…and this is “Francesca’s Room”  – you can purchase a beautiful reproduction of this symbolist painting here.