Tricks

Digital painting/illustration with collage + photo textures.

Another remake, this time from 2007, originally titled The Magician's Daughters.

Twins and their tricks, and not a playing card in sight. Most odd! x

Changeling

Changeling or The Fairy Host (I can't quite decide)

Digital painting with textures, for the Fairytales series.

Sometimes there's a story and I have no idea how to translate it via text. The image contains all that there is to know, yet the most vital details remain invisible. This involves a reconnection with what was once lost or misplaced. Who or what does she embrace? Her invisible kinfolk I suppose, an immortal prince or lord of forgotten lands. I wonder what she had to sacrifice in order to reach them.... x

Mountain Dream Tarot

Mountain Dream Tarot, a beautiful, symbolic interpretation created by Bea Nettles, 1975.

I would love to locate either the book or the pack, but it doesn't appear to be available any longer. The images resonate with me quite deeply, both personally and creatively. If you happen to know where I might be able to find more information about them within the UK I would be extremely grateful!

Edit: Thanks so much to Lorraine for providing so much wonderful info & sharing links to this video...

xloux

Rapunzel

Rapunzel

New portrait. The hair is supposed to cocoon her, protect her, keep her warm. The brightness levels seem a little strange here on my laptop, so I hope she looks ok to you! I wanted to create a certain ethereal softness, with very little contrast. Lamb-soft, and pale. I think that I prefer the first, cropped version, although the cocoon effect is more apparent in the full version (in the last image).

And a new digital drawing on the magical/nature/Singing Tree theme. Not sure that I am satisfied with this at the moment, so I may alter the image, create new heads for the boys. Love the idea though. I'm not very experienced with drawing male figures, so this is something of a new challenge for me.

xxx

Amaranth

Celeste

Amaranth (version1)

Amaranth (version2)

I now have two slightly different copies of Amaranth and still cannot decide which to go with. I prefer the lighter, detailed version1, yet can't seem to reject the more spacious, darker velvety quality of version2. So here we have both :]

They are concerned with transformation, alchemy.....perhaps even death as a symbol of new life.....in the metaphorical sense. Something about them reminds me of the ocean at night, slightly chilling, yet they are certainly supposed to represent feminine strength, mystery, magic. The mirrors signify both divination and self reflection.

Amaranth: (the following paragraph taken from the Dictionary of Symbols by Jack Tresidder)

"A long lasting flowering plant depicted on Greek tombs and sculptures as a symbol of immortality. Amaranth was linked with Artemis and credited with healing properties. In China, its flowers were offered to the lunar hare at the moon festival as a token of immortality."

For the Celestial Children series.

xxx

Keepers

Keepers (detail)

Keepers (full version)

Digital painting/illustration/collage.

For the Specters and Dreams series.

Some of my works remain elusive, even to myself. Sometimes I like to dress up nightmares in pretty frocks with ribbons attached. Keepers remains faithful to my ongoing fascination with memory, the unconscious and dreams. My boyfriend responded instantly with 'David Lynch!', but I replied, indignantly, "No! It's Dorothea Tanning!". I always mail new pieces to my parents (usually at some ungodly hour of the night) so that they can meet my latest anomalies over their morning coffee. This time my mother asked me what on earth had terrified her so, for her hair to stand on end.

Well, not terror at all. Just some surreal, transformative skullduggery. I was so pleased with the landscape, which took me quite a few sessions to paint, and the scene, the situation, with  its accompanying characters, seemed to grow out of the landscape itself somehow, as if they were born of it. I sometimes perceive my characters to have grown a little bit older - this time a girl on the cusp of adolescence - and their surroundings appear to have leapt into tune with them, often suggesting adventures into the unknown. And all of this, of course, is usually about me, in the autobiographical sense, which tends to describe most of the works in the Specters and Dreams series. Livid, living symbols! The skulls may represent a burden, or ever-present presences, the ghosts of her past. These are my favourite visual themes; creating a sort of serenity which has so much potential for terror. I suspect that something unconsciously quite terrible has always informed/driven my art, although the process itself brings such pleasure (to me!), transforming the darkness, those elusive flickers of memory into something tangible, ordered and (hopefully) quite positive/powerful.

I so wish that I could explain things just a tiny bit more eloquently. Perhaps this is why I make images instead of writing fiction (which was always my first love), because the images come so naturally, and their ongoing little fictions are already woven into them. And yet because of this, their private little fictions will have to remain eternally subject to the personal interpretation of each individual who 'reads' them.

There is a thunderous silence to Keepers, something which thrills and disturbs me to the core. The skull with the crown has such strong relevance for me, which any efforts at verbal translation could not justify. So, ultimately, so much remains hidden, both in translation and in the picture itself. A sort of revelation in half light.

Gosh, that was confusingly candid.

And speaking of fiction, I am currently reading two superdooper wonderful books: The Oxford Book of Short Stories, edited by Joyce Carol Oates, and a compilation of essays about the works of Angela Carter, entitled Flesh and the Mirror. So many new discoveries in the American Short Stories compilation, especially works by writers such as James Baldwin, Herman Melville and Henry James.

In shop related news, I am still awaiting the arrival of three, new Limited Edition books, which I am quite excited about because they are my first foray into hardback territory! A little bit expensive to produce, so there will only be the three available this time around - but I shall be looking to create more accessible options for after the new year. Do check my News page for more details.

xxx

Recurring Dream

 

Recurring dream, or psychokinesis. I can't quite decide upon the title. A haunting in dreams, something that I am familiar with. The five bats and the king of spiders may be one and the same. I'm speaking in riddles because it is impossible not to.

Currently reading Brothers and Beasts: an anthology of men on fairytales by Kate Bernheimer.

xxx

Broken Heart Pillow

 

House of Cards or Broken Heart Pillow. I can't decide which to go with. Apologies for the watermark placement, it has been one of those weeks.

This took some doing, a combination of digital painting and photomontage. I thought of Poe, which is probably obvious. Also influenced by early Hammer films: the girl reminds me of a child character portrayed in The House that Dripped Blood, starring the eternally stunning Christopher Lee.

There's a story here. Something I appear to have returned to recently: placing more complex narratives into my work. The stories themselves only half apparent, perhaps what we invest in them completes the narrative? I have my own feelings invested within this picture, personal and impossible to explain in words, but I am also fascinated by what others perceive, how each of us will interperet it so differently!

She does not suffer from a broken heart. So content within her hermetic, private, sealed off world - she represents the artist to some extent. And my own peculiar double nature: a longing to be left alone for days on end without disturbance so that I can indulge in creating, dreaming, wondering, reading. But also my desire to become social, to share ideas, to explore the word around me, to take on new experiences. This image contains both sinister and innocent elements, for me. A balance that I am just particularly drawn to.

xxx

PS: I will be back around the 21st of July, hopefully with a bunch of new prints for the shop! Take care.