When someone buys one of my animal paintings, I don't think of it as just a sale. It's like a rehoming ☺️. The beginning of a long-term domestic arrangement.
This isn't just a picture of an animal, it's their character, spirited onto canvas and here to take up residence in your home.
Its a slightly unusual way to think about interior decorating, but these pieces are animals and birds with individual personalities- you'll see what I mean.
Your Home Is About To Get A New Resident
The thing about a truly characterful painting is that it doesn't just hang there being decorative. It inhabits a room. Guests will notice the feel good vibes Children feel it particularly - they love animal art. You'll feel it straightaway too, your room will feel warm - more alive, and nicer to spend time in.
It's because someone moved in when you weren't paying attention 😃
Nothing ghostly or alarming. More like a benign permanent houseguest with excellent energy and no interest whatsoever in using your Wi-Fi.
A warm, sentient spirit who was already themselves before you hung them up and will still be themselves long after everything else in the room has changed around them.
This is what I'm actually trying to create. Artwork with a personality that can cross the threshold and stay.
The Bit Where I Have To Actually Catch Them First
Whenever I paint an animal, it might be a Highland cow draped in a cheeky curtain of hair or a wolf with the energy of someone who has made their peace with every decision they've ever made. Or a hare caught in a moment of such electric, trembling aliveness it touches your heart - I am attempting something considerably more than a nice likeness. I'm trying to paint their soul. The specific quality of presence that makes one creature different from another and which lives behind the eyes.
Every animal has it. Even the menacing ones. My job is to find it, recognise it, and wrestle it onto the canvas before the moment goes.
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