Using Artistic License In My Paintings

I love to use artistic license in my paintings, changing things to suit my ideas and the composition.

It enhances and accentuates aspects of my designs creating a more colourful, eye catching and dramatic end result.

Sometimes it is the utter freedom of throwing “scale” to the wind, that helps you come up with spontaneous surprises.

(All of the original paintings displayed here are available to purchase – click on the individual image to find out more).

With the African Box  and the Indian Box, I wanted to paint wild animals in a different way. So I thought, why not put them in a box? It is a safe place for these precious, endangered and beautiful creatures.

In the Tulips in Cabbage composition, I wanted your eyes to naturally gravitate to the centre where you instantly see the coloured tulips, and suddenly, the green parrots of various sizes.

I saw the large coral shell as a meeting place in “The Puffins with Shell” (click to view painting), somewhere they can congregate before they dive for fish.

This video shares a little more about the inspiration behind the painting and there is a transcription below the video should you prefer to read about it.

The original of this painting is currently available to purchase, for more details click here.

It is also available as a Giclée Print in a choice of 3 sizes, please click here for more details.

This painting is so obviously larger than life. It’s something that I just felt like doing.

I wanted to do a Rose and with the Rose, make it slightly different and therefore, I thought of all these fabulous little insects and bees that we see in all the gardens.

I worked for about two years doing decoupage and I remember my daughter saying, to me, whatever you do, don’t forget how you can change the size of everything and I remember distinctly, I needed some elephants and they ended up being possibly an inch high so I had a wonderful time with decoupage and I think my real inspiration from that period is the fact that I can use artistic license and change things to suit me and to suit my composition.

I loved absolutely doing the inside of the Rose and having the juxtoposition of the deep pink and the pale pink and then choosing these colours, which clash but clash in a marvelous way of the bugs, the butterfly, the dragonfly.

And so here we have a wonderful, bold bright, beautiful Rose, which I loved doing and then all the insects that we don’t feel queasy about or difficult about and the bees and putting them together, almost as though they’re inseparable because actually they are in ones garden.