Special Valentine’s Gifts With Heart & Soul

Very Special Valentine’s Gifts

Lasting infinitely longer than a bunch of real flowers, I am often told that my original flowerscape paintings delight lucky recipients any day of the year. However I think that they make particularly special Valentine’s gifts as I believe flowers have a special ability to communicate something of the fragility and beauty of romantic love. Titles are an important aspect of my work; with names such as “Always and Forever”, “You Make Loving Fun”, “I am So Full of Love” and “Our Hearts Dreaming”, a piece of original artwork given as a unique valentine’s gift truly speaks volumes and confirms to your beloved how much they mean to you. My paintings represent so many different things to different people. To me they celebrate both the innocence and the power of love; be that a knowing glimpse from one lover to another with adoration dancing in their eyes, the feeling of the warm glow deep inside when that first spark of love is ignited, or the inner peace felt when tenderly kissing the lips of the one you have loved for eternity.

But What is Valentine’s Day?

Valentine’s Day (or Saint Valentine’s Day as it is more formally known) is celebrated in Western culture on 14th February when people share romantic unique gifts and cards with those that they love. While some believe that Valentine’s Day is celebrated in the middle of February to commemorate the anniversary of Saint Valentine’s death (which probably occurred around A.D. 270), others claim that the Christian church may have decided to place St. Valentine’s feast day in the middle of February in an effort to “Christianise” the pagan celebration of Lupercalia. Lupercalia was a very ancient pastoral festival, observed on February 13th-15th, to avert evil spirits and purify the city, releasing health and fertility. My work celebrates nature, mystery, magic and love. The glorious tumbling hedgerows and elemental wild spots in the Devon countryside which provide my inspiration make the perfect subject for a special valentine’s gift, capturing the essence and nature of Lupercalia.

Uniquely Beautiful Devon Flowerscapes

My Devon flowerscapes exude a certain joy and whisper sweet nothings, singing songs of tenderness and love. The delicacy of the individual flowers juxtaposed with the boldness and energy of the paint brings about something rather magical; a kind of alchemy. Perhaps it is this mystical quality which makes so many of you write to tell me how you have been moved by my unique glitter-strewn flowerscapes. I am always so deeply moved and humbled to receive these correspondence and it is wonderful to hear how my work can touch peoples lives. My mixed media constructions include glitter, gold leaf, flowers picked in the meadows and multiple layers of rainbow-strewn pigments and paint that come together to create a perfect harmony, like flowers in a meadow. This unique technique encourages my delicate yet sprightly florals to be catapulted up from the canvas in a kaleidoscopic confetti shower of joy; a fanfare of love, if you will! I think that we should rejoice in love every day of the year, but why not really celebrate this Valentine’s Day with limited edition fine art prints, hand-finished printed canvasses and greetings cards to make your beloved swoon.

“For it was not into my ear you whispered, but into my heart. It was not my lips you kissed, but my soul.”

Judy Garland