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Meet Our Artists
Selina Fenech
Australian artist Selina Fenech was born in 1981 and has always
felt the burn of magic in her heart. Her daydreams of magical creatures and places
were irrepressible, and goddesses, fairies and nature spirits started showing
up in her artwork from a very early age. She has always had a great love and appreciation
of the magic of nature, and frequently gets lost in mythology and fairytales which
all inspire her greatly. While she always loved to draw, she didn’t know she wanted
to, or could, be an artist for quite some time. When she was sixteen years old
she placed a few of her artworks in an online gallery and was amazed when fan
mail and print and commission requests started coming in. Always wanting to please,
and excited to be sharing her passion for art and magic, Selina began taking commissions
and producing fine art prints of her work, and her art career has grown steadily
since then, seeing publication in books and magazines worldwide and a range of
licensed merchandise.
Rachael Tallamy
Rachael's desire for creativity and art was discovered at age 5 and she has been
drawing ever since. Upon graduating high school, she obtained a science degree
and is a Registered Nurse. She married her husband, Brian in 1993 and they have
two wonderful sons. Remaining passionate about art, she became interested in digital
art when she began restoring old photos in 1998. So, all the work in computer-generated
images, have led her to digital painting, in which she has discovered her preferred
medium and style for her portfolio and for clients. Most of her artworks are still
sketched on paper, but are now scanned and computer painted for the finished details.
In February of 2006, Rachael quit full time nursing to pursue art. Her preferred
genre is fantasy, especially angels, fairies, and unicorns. www.rtallamy.com
Nene Thomas
Nene Tina Thomas began her professional career in 1994, when
she was approached by Wizards of the Coast to contribute work to the popular
card game “Magic: the Gathering.” Her work with Wizards of the Coast can still
be seen in the Fourth and Fifth Expansions, Antiquities, Legends, The Dark,
Homelands and the new “Magic: The Gathering” CD ROM Game. Some of the other
card games that feature her work are Shadowfist, Legend of the Five Rings,
Galactic Empires, Tempest of the Gods, Wyrmwars, Gridiron, Vampire: The Eternal
Struggle, Xenophiles, and Battlelords of the 23rd Century.
Although Nene is known best for her work with
watercolors, she has recently begun to expand her artistic horizons with other
media, including digital. Nene has also written a few tutorials for Photoshop.
But no matter what media is used, the core elements of her art remain constant:
her characters have grace and elegance, her settings are striking, and the images
as a whole are breathtaking. Nene’s greatest artistic ambition is to be able
to perfectly capture an image that she has in her mind’s eye on paper. Over
the last two years, Nene has had the good fortune to see her art translated
into a variety of products, including statues, ornaments, stickers, and t-shirts.
Her many products can be seen in several catalogs, in retail outlets throughout
the country, or on her website. The retail success of her art hasn’t changed
her focus however, and with each new piece she strives to push herself as an
artist. Nene currently lives in Oklahoma City with her husband Steven Plagman,
who is also her framer and fancy mat cutter. She has three sisters and two brothers,
all of them artistic and musically talented. Nene spends her days sketching,
researching, painting and playing with her five cats.
Linda Ravenscroft
Linda was born in 1963, a very typical Pisces, always preferring
to live in a dream world, a world which she has painted in ever since she can
remember, and one in which as a child she could retreat to when ever things became
tough. Linda lives in Cheshire, England with her husband and daughter and numerous
pets. Linda’s inspiration comes from many sources rooted in her childhood – dreams,
inner feelings, love of nature, and the wonderful tales of myths and legends her
parents shared with her at bedtime. Linda truly believes that we all have a little
bit of Faerie magic within our hearts, helping us to make the right decisions
within our everyday lives. We just have to look for it.
Linda Biggs
Linda Biggs was born and raised in Maryland, USA. She has always
loved fantasy and lived in a dream world as much as she could get away with.
After a long career in advertising, and corporate commercial printing in Baltimore,
she retired and began her new life as a full time Fine Artist in 1999. She launched
the website Fairie Forest Watercolors and began to market her work. Since then,
it’s been an amazing journey every step of the way. Linda has experienced so
much wonder through her art. She has met and befriended many like minded folks,
and will treasure those experiences for a lifetime.
Linda is Native American (Cherokee), very spiritual, sensitive and oh yeah...Bi-Polar.
Many people see that as a curse; however Linda embraces it as a gift. When times
are extreme her creations are at their very best, so far that she welcomes the
challenge.
In the beginning of Linda’s Fine Art career, it was about painting pretty fairy
pictures. Now with the inception of each painting, Linda’s goal is the dig deeper
and step out of her comfort zones. When she painted “Lady Bug-Koko Korrani Spirit”
It was quite a challenge – and it is the painting she is most proud of. Her hope
is that in years to come, her paintings will tell the simple story of her life.
They are real life experiences transposed as art. These paintings will be a simple
gift to anyone who enjoys them.
Jessica Galbreth
Contemporary American artist Jessica Galbreth began her career
in 1999 with a modest web site after attending the University of Toledo's Fine
Arts program with a focus on drawing and painting.
Over the years, Jessica's fantasy art, named the Enchanted Art
Collection, became well known throughout the world. He work was translated into
hundreds of different products from greeting cards to collectible resin figurines,
and everything in between, and was sold in specialty gift shops and retail chains.
She won numerous awards for her work, and continued to gain popularity world-wide.
With distributors in the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada and Germany, Jessica
truly became an internationally acclaimed fantasy artist. Her work was even
featured in the movie Nights in Rodanthe starring Richard Gere and Diane Lane!
"Your talent is Gods' gift to you, what you do with
it is your gift back to Him. In all things, seek to give Him glory, for all
good things come from above"
In 2010, Jessica experienced a shift in her personal faith. After
becoming a Christian and trusting Jesus Christ as her Lord and Saviour, Jessica
turned a page in her career and started what is now known as the Vintage Angel
Collection, seeking to use her artistic gift to give glory to God's kingdom.
Jessica retired her Enchanted Art Collection, feeling that it no longer represented
who she was. She now created exclusively for her Vintage Angel line which is
comprised of angelic images celebrating light, hope, faith and love. Jessica
understands that angels transcend religious barriers with a common sense of
peace and wonder, and hopes that her work will touch others from many walks
of life.
Jacqueline Collen-Tarrolly
Always a bit of a misfit as a child, Jacqueline began painting
as a way to express the fae she saw in the trees and hidden places of the world.
Since her first professional entrance into the scene of fairy art, her work
has appeared in numerous books and publications and can be found on a myriad
of gifts such as magnets, stickers and keychains in shops such as Hot Topic,
Claires, The Icing and others. She is a regular vendor at the Southern California
Renaissance Pleasure Faire and the Northern California Renaissance Faire.
In addition to her own website, Toadstool Farm Art, and this one, she manages
an artists co-operative wholesale group, The Fairy Court, and two other collective
art websites, Mystic Minis, and My Fairy Baby.
She now lives in a storybook cottage in Los Angeles with her husband, teenaged
son, an assortment of wild and domestic animals, an ever changing clutch of fairy
folk, and one brand new beautiful little fairy baby girl named Antonia. She remains
a misfit.
Christine Bowman
Christine is a mermaid, wildlife and fantasy artist residing in St. Peters, Missouri.
Christine has been intrigued and inspired by wildlife and fantasy from an early
age so it seemed only natural she would follow her free spirited side and form
her own company for her passions. Christine feels very lucky to have worked with
a variety of companies who have put lines of products together for her mermaids.
She currently has a bath and body line, a cross-stitch line, t-shirts, tote bags,
prints, giclees on museum wrapped canvas and much more. Christine’s painting “Aurora”
is her first piece of artwork done in figurine form.
Andrew Bill
Wizards, Dragons and Crystals - I was born and raised in Brewood,
Staffordshire. Attained an Upper Second Class Honours in Ceramics at Stafford
College of Art. I started my sculpting career at Coalport China producing mice
and wildlife for resin, and Cottages and Victorian style pastille burners for
bone china.
With Holland Studio Craft I began with wildlife, dogs and farm animals and then
in the late eighties, after failing to get the rights to produce Lord of the Rings
figures, I was given the brief: “think up a fantasy range of your own, anything
you like as long as it includes wizards, dragons and crystals!” – ah those immortal
words. So, I had the idea of using the four seasons as the initial concept: one
colour to represent each season, one wizard, one dragon, one crystal for each
colour. That was four dragons, four wizards, four different crystals already,
and I had only just started. This of course was Enchantica, and my artistic life
was never to be the same again. That was nearly twenty years ago. Dragons have
dominated my art ever since.
I have traveled across North America with my wizards and dragons, and of course
the length and breadth of the UK. I have met many people who share my passion
for fantasy, and in some cases far exceed it. I have made some good friends and
strong memories. I have even appeared on live TV shopping channels on both sides
of the Atlantic with my work, and taken part in major collectors events attracting
thousands of eager fantasy fans.
As a freelance sculptor I have continued my career in fantasy figures. Much of
my work can now be seen with The Dragonsite.com, where I have enjoyed new artistic
and technical freedom, and produced pieces of a much greater complexity. With
ranges such as verbuMMagus, Bookwyrms and Seven I have once again given my imagination
free rein, and endeavored to produce art figurines that both excite and beguile
the discerning fantasy collector.
I still explore other areas of interest occasionally and have not abandoned completely
my great interest in wildlife and the environment, but the boy who was addicted
to Doctor Who, Ray Harryhausen films and later Hammer Horror still calls to me,
and its never long before I take his hand once again and let a new fantasy adventure
begin!
Amy Brown
I started painting Faeries in 1992. I'd always been
interested in them, but had never considered them to be a career option, until
one day when I was not quite twenty-one and working in a small art gallery.
My boss asked me to paint something to fill an empty frame that had been sitting
around. I asked her what I should paint and she said "I don't know, paint a
Faery or something". So I did. Three days later the piece sold. So I painted
another. it sold. And I painted another. It sold too. You get the picture. I
began painting Faeries whenever I had spare time. Rapidly I became more and
more drawn to painting them. They demanded it. The years shoved their way past
me and I kept my head down, painting, painting, painting and not paying much
attention to the rest of the world unless I absolutely had to. It was like the
Faeries had taken control of me and were pushing me to paint their portraits
and perhaps to let the world know they are watching.
After selling prints and originals at street fairs and in local shops for a
few years, I opened a website and began selling my work online worldwide. From
there my business took off with a mind of its own. A little more than seventeen
years later, over 1300 paintings completed, an a history of licensed products
longer than I can count, I am still trailing helplessly as the Faeries drag
me on in a seemingly endless rampage.
My passion to paint is like a living creature inside of me. All the ideas in
my head churn and beg to get out. I'm driven to get them onto paper and out
of my head as soon as possible. The characters move and speak in my mind. Snippets
of stories flit through my mind while the paint dries. The quicker I can push
their essence into the paper with my brush and banish them from my head, the
better. Once I've conjured one creature, another is waiting impatiently for
its turn.
Gradually the Faeries have evolved in the meaning for me...something more than
the typical definition of Faeries being winged girls flitting around in the
woods or at the bottom of the garden. They are often wise, majestic and beautiful.
Sometimes they are terrible and cruel. They embody grace, mystery, wonder and
miracles as well as despair, trickery and desire. Wings can be a symbol of freedom,
enlightenment and spiritual growth, or power and strength. Horns and antlers
hint at ageless wisdom and grace in some Fae and malice and cunning in others.
Feathers signify free spirits or a dark and mournful nature. In the Faery realm,
all things become possible and not all is what it seems.
My goal in my work has always been to capture a moment and offer that moment
to the viewer to weave his or her own story. I want each piece to whisper, taunt
and ti
ckle a reaction out of you!
Giovanna Adams is an award winning full-time artist living in the beautiful
hills of New England, with her husband and two little pixies. In 1989 she attended
the Colorado Institute of Art. It was there that she was exposed to the early
works of Charles deLint and the paintings of Brian Froud in his and Alan Lee's
book "Faeries", both of which she considers a great influence in her art today.
Over the years Giovanna has developed a passion for fantasy art and the world
of fey and tries to convey with her art a sense of wonder and mystery. Giovanna's
artwork is collected internationally and her images have been licensed for a
variety of products sold worldwide.
She began painting faeries professionally in 2006 and later that year bagan
to research faerie folklore in other countries across the globe and found the
belief of the fey in all cultures of the world. She launched her ongoing "Faeries
of Color" series, which depicts a culturally diverse world of the fey in 2007.
Coming in the Winter of 2013, Giovanna will share with all faerie lovers her
published exploration and artwork of the worlds fey, ending the belief that
the fey realm exists only in the Anglo-Saxon world.
When not working on personal fey works, Giovanna also delights in writing and
illustrating children and young adult books.
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