Information on Images Without Watermark

I sketched this art work of Fand, Irish sea goddess, out a year ago. I have nearly finished painting it. Mostly, I have to work on the really fine details in the knot work border. That will take the most of what work is left at this point. Fand is sitting up on a rock looking at her ring, in the background are the cliffs. Here I have formed Fand as a mermaid. I will go into more details later.

I am using some really bright colors, and playing with some new and challenging textures, as well as new designs and beasts in the knotwork. It can be hard to find the right balance in my illustrations. That is where to hold back details for the purpose of emphasizing by contrast the main subjects. Well I will go into more detail on the key points of the illustration when I finish it. Hopefully Fand will be finished in October.

Spirals have been a recurring theme this summer. It started with some inspiration to start playing with them in knotwork triskeles. The first knotwork art triskele I did had such a strong water feel, that I decided to do an Irish element tripdict of them. While I was working to birth the forms in line art, a friend and I had a discussion about clockwise and counterclockwise movements in spirals and such. I am surprised at how controversial an idea counterclockwise movement are for some witches and pagans. I will go more into that another time.

Then in July, while in Florida, I was looking at artifacts in a museum and reflecting on how many early cultures used spirals in their spiritual art. From there I started researching information from archeoastronomy sources. While some believe the influence of triskeles and spirals was purely a continental celtic art influence, I disagree. After all, before the celtic people were in Ireland, spirals art was being carved out on sacred sources. For that matter it was before the pyramids were built in Giza.

Now I just have to break canvas, and get to painting them. In the meantime here are the rough forms below.

My passion for this world has always been my strongest motivation for being an artist. I spend my life pursuing my inspiration and vision by creating art. I am currently located in Ohio where I am constantly inspired by nature, mystery, and the magic of life. – Brenda

With much encouragement, and several awards in hand, Brenda pursued her art from child hood into adulthood. She majored in illustration and fine art at Kendall College of Art and Design in Grand Rapids Michigan. There she received a very challenging and rewarding classical arts education that is reflected in her style and technique

She is currently working in the ancient art of Illumination. She has thrown herself headlong in a three year project that will be working with egg tempera, calligraphy, and ink making. Keep a look out for sneak peaks from the upcoming series.

Primarily she works in watercolor in a meticulous method. Her subject genre has from her childhood days been nature and mythology, both in her writing and in her art. Though occasionally She takes commissions for portraits and other illustrations, She prefers not to work outside of her genre.

Her earliest influences were the natural world and inspirations from the writings of such authors as Lloyd Alexander and Tolkein. She sites the visual influences to her style to be the works of Winslow Homer, Andrew Wyeth, Claudia Nice, and the various artists published and promoted by The Endicott Studio.