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Illustrator

La Madone des bois

It’s been awhile since I’ve painted on a large scale, so for this piece I opted to go bigger to get all the detail in (16×20″). Inked first then painted in watercolour and gouache.

Lately I’ve been contemplating how humans are so busy being humans, that we forget that we are not the only inhabitants of this place. We forget that we share it with other living beings, and that we should act as their protectors and stewards of their habitat, not as their exploiters. The Great Lockdown has shown that reduced human activity has been a gift to wildlife; locally, from less turtle deaths on the road due to reduce car traffic…to internationally, with orcas being able to communicate properly due to less boat traffic.

Hence this painting, entitled La Madone des bois. It’s inspired by a 15th century Madonna sculpture I saw in Florence last year.

 

Jane Eyre series

One of the projects I’ve wanted to tackle for a long time has been to do a series of illustrations for Charlotte Brönte’s  Jane Eyre. I recently re-read it and was amazed at how good it was. It’s a Victorian page-turner! I’m a big fan of the Victorian gothic imagery and the romantic melodrama. Having recently returned from a trip to England, I was also inspired by the moors, the tors and the hedgerows. Here are the illustrations:

Portraits for Commercial Observer

I was fortunate enough to be chosen by the Commercial Observer this past fall to illustrate 39 portraits of real estate bigwigs for their Owners Magazine. It was a lot of work and a tight deadline, but I’m very happy with how they turned out. I worked flat out for two weeks, day and night and weekends.

At one point my drafting table looked like this:

 

And here are the final portraits:

And don’t they look lovely in the spread!