Land Artist & woodland pixie in love with the natural world and finding my place gently within it.. 🙏 💚🌿
WELCOME
Using only natural materials found locally and no permanent fixings, each piece I form is inspired by the organic shapes of the natural environment around me.
I create to share my love of nature and to soothe my soul.
Welcome to my little pixie world...
After sharing almost daily on my Facebook and Instagram pages, I'm often asked to sell prints of my creations. Some of these are then offered for sale in my once a month 'releases'.
ARTIST BIO
Originally a painter and a photographer, finding the medium of Land Art has allowed my art and my connection to the Earth my soul so needed, to combine. As a full time mama of twin girls, Land Art is my quiet time, my peace. I flow purely with found materials, creating ephemeral birds and other little visitors underneath my favourite Oak tree or field boundary. Within moments sometimes, my offerings fly away on the breeze.
NEWS
NEXT ETSY RELEASE
NEXT RELEASE: Friday 9th JUNE (18:00 GMT) - Sunday 11th JUNE (23:00 GMT). ☺️🙏✨💚🌿
Just like previous releases, I will give focus to my newest creations, topped up with some of my favourites from the past. If you are interested in buying prints through the Etsy shop, maybe set yourself a reminder for the release.
LATEST WORKS
I've been experimenting using my "paint" highlight technique, made from crushed natural chalk and water and painted directly onto the earth using a leaf. You can see some in my Gallery page here, and also on my Facebook page.
ETSY SHOP
Once a month I share a number of my favourite creations as prints and sell them via my Etsy shop during a 'releases', the time and date when the release starts is always announced on my Facebook and Instagram pages. Typically a release runs for three days or until everything has sold out.
Prints currently are offered as 5x5 inch or 8x8 inch, either unmounted or mounted (which are signed). The mounted ones tend to sell out very quickly.
Sometimes the prints are a mixture of birds, creatures, Fae (dragons and the like) and nature designs, and other times they're focused on just one of these. I have to limit the number of prints for sale at each release as I rely heavily on my mum to manage the shop for me, and I can't risk breaking her!
"It seems to me that the natural world is the greatest source of excitement; the greatest source of visual beauty; the greatest source of intellectual interest. It is the greatest source of so much in life that makes life worth living."
Sir David Attenborough
FAQ
WHERE DO YOU LIVE?
I am in the UK, on the outskirts of a town in Hertfordshire. Though I don't have a garden, I am lucky enough to be able to get out into fields and woodland about a ten minute walk from my flat.
HOW BIG ARE YOUR VISITORS?
They vary but most are tiny and you could fit the majority on the palm of your hand. The larger mammals are slightly bigger and birds in flight can sometimes stretch beyond the 20cm mark.
DO YOU USE ANY FIXINGS
No none at all, though I have learned to layer heavier pieces over lighter ones to keep them in place in the winds!
HOW DID YOU GET STARTED WITH USING NATURE AS THE MEDIUM IN YOUR ARTWORK AND HOW LONG HAVE YOU BEEN DOING IT?
I have always adored nature and have found comfort in the calm, slow lane it encourages you into...and I have always made art for as long as I have been able! But I didn't begin making art with nature until early 2019...I started by making a small circular formation in a little woodland.. and after I completed it a small Muntjac deer came into the woodland and stayed with me for ages. I remember feeling that day that I had unlocked something within me that connected to Mother Nature and I have been making art like this ever since.
ARE YOU TEMPTED TO MAKE YOUR ARTWORKS MORE LONG-LASTING, LIKE BY GLUING AND FRAMING THEM?
At the beginning I really did contemplate making them permanent and I did dabble with both wax and dried flowers and also eco resin but it's just not for me at the moment. Right now it is the ephemeral nature of my work that makes it special to me. I lay my emotions down on the ground and they blow away. That is a very cathartic experience.
THE BACKGROUND OF YOUR WORK APPEARS TO BE ROCKS OR THE GROUND. DO YOU SAVE THESE AFTER YOU FINISHED? HAVE YOU EVER USED OTHER BACKGROUNDS LIKE WOOD OR CANVAS?
I work in a few favourite spots in the mud. At the moment it's at the edge of a field along a Hawthorn hedgerow. I use no fixings or tools and as such my art blows or flies away on the breeze.. I only save a photograph
HOW DO YOU DECIDE WHAT TO CREATE EACH DAY AND HOW OFTEN DO YOU MAKE YOUR ARTWORK?
I flow every single day unless the weather is too crazy. It has become a spiritual ritual and something that really improves my mental health. I decide after I have sat down, placed my gathered elements down and cleared a space...sometimes I don't know until after I have already begun and other times I use reference photos to work from. It very much depends on my mood too.. Sometimes I want to make something cute and uplifting, other times it's more dark or energetic.
DO YOU HAVE A DAY JOB?
No, I don't. I gave birth to my twins in Sept 2017 and I was a full time mama up until my wife was made redundant at the beginning of lockdown (April 2020). I made the most of having her off work and gave more dedicated time to my art, and me and mum started the Etsy shop. I make art for around 4 hours a day, sometimes more, seven days a week.. I also now help mum with the packing of the Etsy orders. I would love to eventually run small outdoor art/Forest Bathing sessions.. one day. (My anxiety makes a normal 'day job' very difficult so I am very very lucky to have my art).
I WOULD LOVE TO HAVE A GO MYSELF, DO YOU HAVE ANY TIPS?
For a beginner I encourage you to simply gather materials locally to you and play! Try to remember a time in your life when you were very young when you first discovered paint! That feeling of throwing colour around and experiencing what it felt like... encapsulate that feeling and try things. When you were a child it didn't matter if you made 'something' what mattered was the experience. You will find yourself becoming more familiar with your 'paint' and things will flow from there.
IDEAS
to help children explore their own creativity within this medium
I have been asked many times to create something that can be used as a tool for parents and teachers, so they can help children to understand my process and begin to explore temporary nature art themselves.
These are definitely not an extensive how to create x,y or z, but instead an aid to be able to help children explore their own creativity within this medium. I hope they will be of some help.
IMPORTANT - The first step 'Go Outside and Gather' should be supervised by a teacher/parent or guardian that knows what is being gathered. I don't want to risk any children (or adults for that matter) picking/consuming/hurting themselves in any way on anything! I am very familiar with my local surroundings. Make sure you are safe.
STEP 1
Go Outside and Gather...
sticks
stones
leaves
flowers
seed pods
berries
shells
moss
lichen
* Remember only take very small amounts as we don't want to take away from our pollinators, birds and other friends!
STEP 2
Look at What You've Gathered
Study your foraged art supplies by looking at details such as:
texture
colour
weight
flexibility
brightness*
*Look at the variety of tone. Is it light like a white feather OR a yellow flower OR is it dark like a brown leave OR blackened stem, OR is a more a mid-tone like a grey pebble or a green leaf?
STEP 3
Experimental Play, No Rules!
Consider:
can you snap it?
can you bend it?
can you layer it?
can you fold it?
To understand your medium is an important step, both to help understand what is possible and also to gain a deeper respect for nature's gifts.
