"Cocooned in the safety net of our lives
The signs are slipping by
Reach out and grasp a passing wing
Join the call to arms
Have no fear to tread
In the footprints
Of the light."

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D. E. Designs

Threads

Just before I went to drama school, I toyed with the idea of taking up art seriously.  In my naivety, I applied to the two best schools in London and, when I didn’t get in, took this as a sign that I should be a performer.  But I do love to paint, so when the mood takes me I will clear space on my floor and get out all of my various equipment.  I work in a few different mediums – watercolour with a mixture of pencils and also a technique called Encaustic wax painting.  This involves using pigmented beeswax, which is melted and manipulated onto card by a low-heat iron.  I then move the wax around with a hairdryer until I am satisfied by the basic shape, and then the detail in the painting is created by using a hot stylus and/or scraping through the wax on the card.  All of these mediums are very quick drying, which of course allows me time to pursue all my other creative interests!

I especially love to paint landscapes because of the vast range of colour and texture, but I think I also have a tendency to be a bit surreal or fantastical in my compositions, just painting spontaneously to see what comes out, and then working into it.

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Please view the slide show on the left, and if you would like to purchase any of the images as greetings cards or in any other format, or even to commission a new piece, please feel free to get in touch via the Contact page on this website for further details. 

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Flying Horse

Elephant

William Blake - artist/poet/prophet (1757 - 1827)

Happy Country

I designed a range of bookmarks and fridge magnets featuring quotations of William Blake, to mark the 250th Anniversary of his birth in 2007 which coincided with the premiere production of "William Blake's Divine Humanity", as featured on my Stage & Screen page.   This is just one example which had this image on the front and the text below on the reverse side.  Other images are featured in the slideshow above and all are still available for purchase.

“Would to God
 that all the Lord’s people were prophets”.
(Numbers XI. Ch. 29)
"All these things are
Written in Eden. 
The Artist
Is an inhabitant
Of that happy country,
And if everything goes
As it has begun,
The world of vegetation
 And generation
 May expect to be
Opened again
To Heaven,
Through Eden,
As it was
 In the beginning."
WILLIAM BLAKE
(1809)

Last year, I created a video using some of my art images and my own composition based on Blake's well known poem, JERUSALEM which you can view here...

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