Woodland Dream

Description

Acrylic

This acrylic painting on canvas started as a simple study of a girl with a beautiful dress and acquired an intriguing life of its own. As I painted her, I realised I really wanted to have her interact with something and the Australian Eastern Water Dragon was the perfect size and attitude to converse with her. I loved the light on her and the contrasting dark of the woodland around her and instead of a super tight, realistic painting that I first intended I ended up keeping most of the initial looseness of the brushstrokes that I marked the scene out with. This has ended up being one of my fantasy works, in keeping with the mermaids and dragons (mythological) that I enjoy doing. To me she seems like a fairy or something otherworldly that has taken on a human appearance, perhaps because she seems to glow.

My source material was a photo by Howard Lyon (model Tessa Halterman) and the dragon was from my personal collection of photos of Prince Stripe in my backyard.

The original painting has been sold but limited edition prints will be available soon