Okay so ‘fairy dust and love’ is a bit wacky even by my standards but it is a phrase that came to me when I was working on a batch of photo art portraits of family and pets.
Fairy Dust and Love
You can slave over a piece of work and in the end abandon it because it doesn’t work. But when you are working on a picture of someone or something you love everything just flows. At least that is my experience. Above is my photo portrait of my Mum and grand nephew.
What Do I Mean By ‘Fairy Dust And Love’?
I joke about sprinkling my fairy dust on something to make it magical – that can be cooking or a piece of art, anything in fact. Barnet Boy bought me a tiny jar of purple fairy glitter dust for Christmas because he saw it and thought of me. Combine fairy dust with love and for me I get the inner feeling of how I feel about that person or animal and that is what I am expressing when I work on a piece.
So with ‘Across the Generations’ above, I was trying to capture the feeling of a special moment between a woman and her great grandson.
With ‘Sleep of An Angel’ I focused on an intimate moment of trust and love with Stevie Mouse.
Capturing Character Is Also Important
Let’s not forget the importance of character and trying to get that across in a portrait. Now, my dog Spud is full of character and I have produced several portraits of him, not least because he has such a cute face. This latest one ‘Play With Me Then’ tries to get across a typical stance when he wants to play, you can see he is ready to respond to something being thrown.
Similarly, his brother Ringo is a bit nervous and so this portrait ‘Look Over There!’ gets across a slight edginess from him as he had just heard a noise behind him.
Contentment and Trust
Finally, there is the interaction between two animals.
In the same way I talked about the interaction between the woman and her great grandson in the first image, you can see it in animals. And that is what I went for here in a picture of Stevie Mouse and Spud. This was about capturing that great feeling between the two of them. One of contentment, trust and great companionship.
So, for me, portraits made with a sprinkling of fairy dust and love are just that little bit extra special.
Originally published in 2017 and updated and republished on 10 April 2022.
Before you go
My name is Dorothy Berry-Lound an artist and writer. You can find out more about my art and writing at https://dorothyberryloundart.com.
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Thank you for reading!
Wonderfully written and illustrated – sounds just like you Dorothy.
Thanks Roy ?
I really like the idea of putting fairy dust and love into one’s work.
Particularly if the fairy dust is purple!