This artwork is another that belongs to my epic FISHERMAN AND MERMAID’S TALE, a unique love story and an ongoing project in my work. It depicts the mermaid, one of the tale’s main protagonists, after she has transformed to live on land. The mermaid has adapted well to life on the surface of the Earth. However the pattern of blue scales on her legs remains a strong reminder of her previous life. 

“Soon after obtaining legs she and the fisherman become great travelers. During this time she also discovers she is a gifted gardener, becoming both a servant of mother earth and a co-creator: By putting her hands into the earth, she could hear her secrets in the same way she did the sea’s. The mermaid collected seeds from their travels but also found a way to form her own seeds from their experiences. She then planted them each time they returned home, eventually growing a magical garden around the fisherman’s hut.…

Her wild nature is alive when she is barefoot in the forests and uses her hands to dig into the soil. Her hands and feet act as divining rods, sensing where to best plant and where things lay that are waiting to rise out of the earth. She then draws in the earth’s cooperation to bring the nutrients most needed for each seed to thrive. She is able to talk to the Earth the way she did with the Sea, they are one and the same.”

This painting portrays the mermaid as the wild feminine, equivalent to an Artemis or a forest nymph from Greek mythology  She is at one with nature, surrounded by plant life. Her expression is starkly present, beckoning and confident. The shape and scales of one of her legs is pronounced, like a direct introduction to the viewer, with the rest of her anatomy seemingly of secondary importance. The leg with scales, her outstretched hand with open palm to the viewer and her evocative expression are the  three key cornerstones of this striking image.

GARDENER is a mixed media drawing with ink, paper collage, watercolor and acrylic paint on high quality fine art paper. There is even Greek coffee applied to the papers surface, a fitting representation of soil.

GARDENER is a mixed media drawing with ink, paper collage, watercolor and acrylic paint on high quality fine art paper. There is even Greek coffee applied to the paper’s surface after an accidental dipping of my brush in my coffee cup during a midnight art session that resulted in – a fitting representation of soil.

It comes presented beautifully in an oak finished frame ready to hang in your home or office. The artwork is mounted freely within the frame to best utilise the mix media texture and naturally derived curve of the paper