Tag Archive for "faery"

Upcoming Ed Org shows

JULY 13/14 Tewkesbury Medieval Fayre, Lincoln Green Lane, Tewkesbury,
Glos, GL20 5TU

20/21 Fantasy Forest, Sudeley Castle, Winchcombe,
Glos, GL54 5JD

AUG 10/11 Llangollen Faery Festival, Llangollen Pavilion, Abbey Road,
Llangollen, Denbighshire, LL20 8SW

23/26 Shrewsbury Folk Festival, West Midlands County
Showground, Berwick Road, Shrewsbury, SY1 2PF

in_the_wild_wild_wood_m

Rising star artist Alexandra Dawe will be doing the Wytches Market in Glastonbury on the Saturday 23rd June.  For more info visit the Wytches Market website. To see more fabulous artwork by artist Alexandra Dawe like ‘In the Wild Wood’ shown above just click here.  In fact this post is a double hit because we’re also naming ‘In the Wild Wood’as our picture of the month here at Artists UK.  And in case you wondered, yes you can order it as a canvas print if prefer having a canvas print to a lithographic print.

So what happened?

Tapestry by Brian Froud

Tapestry by Brian Froud

Brian Froud was supposed to be receiving a lifetime achievement award from the society of illustrators but somehow this rumour never actually materialised and everyone seems at a loss as to why it was floated and then didn’t happen.  It is hard to believe that anyone could conceive of the possibility that Brian Froud is not worthy of such an award.  If anything, it is long overdue since he had already produced a lifetime’s brilliant work years ago!  Brian Froud must now be well into a third or fourth lifetime of work in comparison to many newcomers. Perhaps a triple lifetime achievement award would be more appropriate.  After all, Brian Froud is not an artist who climbed on the bandwagon of faery art, he was one of the very few pushing it uphill at the beginning!  Brian Froud’s work dates way back into the early days of fantasy art – far further back than Brian Froud himself probably wishes to remember!  Along with his colleague Alan Lee, Brian Froud set the standard for technical excellence as well as realism, imagination and vision in bringing fantasy ideas to life.

Whether Brian Froud actually IS an illustrator is of course another issue and maybe that was the problem.  Perhaps they recognised that Brian Froud is more a painter than an illustrator.  For the most part Brian Froud has not illustrated books other than his own and certainly in recent years the number of Brian Froud books has grown considerably.  But if film design work is illustrative then Brian Froud’s work on ‘The Dark Crystal’ alone is worth a lifetime achievement award.

Brian Froud has always trod his own path and openly acknowledges his admiration of Arthur Rackham whose work inspired his early efforts.  The world of faerie is probably more due a lifetime achievement award in his opinion since Brian Froud’s work has always been by the inspiration of the faerie folk, however you conceive that to be.  Brian Froud himself doesn’t actually profess to know faerie because he is happy enough to bathe in its mystery … or at least that is how it always seemed to me.

For someone so influenced by faerie that they sometimes pop up even when he is signing his name Brian Froud  actually isn’t away with the faeries.  If you read a Brian Froud book you’ll find it refreshingly down-to-earth in many ways.  Although the Pagans, New Age people and others love Brian Froud’s work he is somehow somewhere else and does not seem really close to any of these groups or genres.  There is certainly magic in Brian Froud’s artwork though and maybe it is that kind of magic that the world is lacking right now.  Let’s hope he continues to bring the realm of faerie out into his paintings for many years to come as he starts on producing the work of a fifth lifetime!

If you are not that familiar with Brian Froud and want to see more, just click on Brian Froud’s Tapestry or here and away you’ll be whisked away … as if by magic!

As any mother will tell you, being a mother is pretty much a full-time job one way or another … at least until they go to school when you get a few hours off and only have to cope with whatever they bring home with them.  Alexandra Dawe has managed to combine motherly duties and artistic work as you can see in this photo where she is sketching her daughter whilst holding the younger sibling who appears to be taking as little interest in his mother’s artistic abilities as is humanly possible.  Maybe he’s having artistic dreams …

000000000000000 Artist Alexandra Dawe sketching

000000000000000000000000000000Artist Alexandra Dawe sketching

Alexandra always has a full schedule even if it doesn’t look that way in this photo.  Her next event is on 29th & 30th October when she will be at the Avalon Faery Fayre in Glastonbury.  It is being held in the town hall and entry is free.  The opening hours are 10.30am- 5pm or thereabouts.  If you’re around then pop down and tell her you read about it on Artists UK DotNet.

Issue 10 of the Magical Times has a feature on Alexandra Dawe’s artwork.  She decided to just write a small paragraph and have loads of pictures.  She says she finds it hard to waffle on endlessly about inspiration etc and feels it just makes her sound like a fanatical, tree-loving, lunatic.  Even if she is she doesn’t necessarily want everyone to know!

Sometime in the new year there will be four Alexandra Dawe paintings appearing in a TV documentary called Cé a Chónaigh I mo Theachsa? (Who lived in my house?) but it is only airing in Ireland sadly.  They’ll probably have it on their iplayer for a while as well and Alex will have a link on her website when they tell her where it is.

You can visit Alexandra Dawe at her website here or see her work on Deviant Art here.  You can see a range of prints of her work in various sizes at Artists UK here and original paintings for sale here.