September's Art Element challenge was set by Caroline of Blueberribeads and she choose 'Fairies' as the theme.
I grew up with The Flower Fairies and the delightful drawings of Cicely M Barker. I also love the work of Brian Froud and Alan Lee. There are so many artists out there who specialize in art works of fae, Jasmine Beckett-Griffith, Amy Brown, Linda Ravenscroft as well as less modern artists, Edmund Dulac and of course the Cottingley Fairies by Elsie Wight and her cousin Frances Griffiths, these of course caught the imagination of none other than Sir Arthur Conan Doyle who weaved a tale so believable that the public were divided as to whether or not fairies did exist.
Once the challenge was set I started to doodle and let my imagination loose, using stories from my childhood to guide me in my fairy quest. Of all the fairies from the stories of my youth they were mainly in human form. The Flower Fairies, Victoria Plum and others. But my muse doesn't really work with people. My illustrative doodle above came about after a lovely walk with my dogs watching as Autumn takes over from Summer and the fruits of the hedgerows and orchards swell and colour the landscape. I may have had a glass of something cold whilst doodling, even fairies like a tipple ..right?
I researched a bit for animal fairies and was sadly disappointed in their lack. They are there of course but writers of stories tend to humanize their fae. I decided to change that! I also discovered that the words 'fairy' and 'faerie' are a little different in interpretation.
“Fairy” is a word that has been derived from Latin word “fatum,” which can mean “fate.” “Faerie” is a word that has been derived from Gaelic “fear shidhe,” which means “’man of the shee.”Read more: Difference Between Fairy and Faerie | Difference Between http://www.differencebetween.net/language/words-language/difference-between-fairy-and-faerie/#ixzz5SOPa9eN4
So I doodled a little more and soon a scene emerged in my sketchbook.
I decided to have an animal fairy, after all fairy are small 'folk' and in my world (art) animals are dominant. After doodling some more in my sketchbook, my little scene developed and then to make it 'real'.
I have been exploring (read that as looking and drooling at lots of very talented artists on the web!) paper diaormas. I really want to experiment much more than I have been doing. I found in my cupboard a green 'thing' that was given to me by a member of the team (Niky Sayers). She found it last Christmas and liked it so brought a few of them and gave them to the members of the team who met up in London back in January. Suddenly I saw this green 'thing' as a mound in my world. A few little glass toadstools, some paper grass, a wooden plinth and some trees - which in hindsight I would have done differently - with some of my own hand made gold watercolour paint and some 'found' acorns on a beautiful Autumn day walk with my dogs completed my vision... oh and a sprinkling of fairy dust (glitter), completed the look.
I got rather attached to my little mouse and decided to create her in glass too, then she got a name and now my sketchbook is full of little mice hoola hooping, running, playing and having wings!
Thanks to Caroline for setting the challenge. I nearly gave up as I really wasn't feeling the 'human' fairy but I am glad I stuck with the muse because I think Esme might go on to be a staple character in my stories and illustrations.
Others who have joined in on this month's themed challenge are below, I hope you enjoy reading their magical journeys this month.
