Bringing some underwater magic into your world.
My story
Arts and crafts were a huge part of my childhood, as were reading and daydreaming. During my early childhood, I coloured in lots of colouring books and read a variety of books about faeries and mermaids, which made my imagination run wild with ideas of faeries in the forests and talking octopi in the ocean. As I grew older, this became a way for me to escape from the stresses of life and so the daydreams became stronger. Today, those daydreams form the paintings I make now.
My Degree
Studying at the University of East London, I received a lot of guidance on what mediums to try and I got to try out a lot of different ways of creating that weren’t before available to me, most notably alcohol markers. During the first two years of my degree I focused on portraits and illustrating architecture which I thoroughly enjoyed. It wasn’t until my 3rd year when I finally had the chance to try oil paints and oil pastels properly without worrying about making a mess that I really found my style and my medium.
Why Sea-life and Mermaids?
As art block started creeping in, I ventured back to what brought the biggest spark to my imagination and creativity and how I see the world. What was most memorable was the book ‘Mermaid Magic’ by Gwenyth Rees, which tells the story of a young mermaid and her family navigating mer-life and sea-creatures and magic. From reading that book, I’ve always wondered about talking octopi and what if we were living underwater - or - what if underwater life mixed with ours? From that and a very severe case of underwater daydreaming throughout my childhood, I started imagining and creating the paintings you see today.
“Beautiful artwork. The piece really meant a lot to me as it was a commission based off my favourite childhood spot. Arrived really quickly too! Thank you.”
- May, commission client