Debbie Cullis
About My Art
Since moving to the Isle of Lewis on the Outer Hebrides, end of May 2003, with my partner Paul Smith, I have been dedicating my time to painting full-time and professionally for nearly four years.
We have spent some two years travelling the Islands and Highlands of Scotland in a motor-home, while renting out to three lots of tenants, building up some painting experience and visiting places of interest. We also travelled briefly through Ireland and across to Pembrokeshire, back to the mainland, Wales before returning in November 2006.
Since meeting my partner, we enjoyed going on many walks; along towpaths and through woodlands, went on back-packing holidays, then, invested in the motor-home, which has proved to be vary valuable. The walks brought back many memories of childhood country walks with my Mother. With Paul, I learned identification of plant species, wild birds and butterflies. I became vary interested and absorbed in the countryside and nature. I wanted to paint everything I saw, touched and could smell.
I built up much experience in painting, particularly in the motor-home, which enabled us to travel further, and might lead us to travel some more in the future.
I started by painting and drawing the wild flowers, birds and butterflies and sketching places we visited. I made handmade cards from the techniques I had learned on my degree. We began by running stalls at craft fairs and visiting as many craft shops and galleries as we could around the mainland and Wales.
While living here, on the Isle of Lewis, I have become totally absorbed in the emotional moods of the landscape, and the seasonal changes to the light effecting the scenery.
I use all mediums, my favourites being: pastels, acrylics, watercolour and pencil. I like the softness of layering and blending the pastels. I began with using pastel sticks for a range of drawings of the Harris Beaches. I have now furthered my experience by using pastel pencils, which have proved effective in drawing commissions for people with Collie Dogs or animals. I enjoy exploring acrylics, which I used for the first time during my degree. While watercolours have taken me a little longer to master the technique, but now feel I can use them more freely and loosely with the experimentation of splattering and the effects of sea salt. I have always had a feel for pencil, using a number of different hardness and softness in: 2H, H, HB, B, 2B, 4B and 5B. I love making as much of a variety of lines and marks as possible. I think using pencil effectively is the secret to starting to draw.
My style is now developing and I am progressing from strength to strength. I often use photos, back in my studio/house, and I am learning to incorporate more than one photo together in my composition. For example, I may use a photo of a beach scene or Scottish landscape with the illustration of a sea bird incorporated into the composition. Last year I got a commission from a shop, Equinox, in Wolverhampton, to paint some fairies. I started with a photo of the wild flowers of Scotland with the aid of a photo of Paul’s five year old niece, dressed in her party dress, I then, painted a juxtaposition of the two photos using watercolour techniques, sea salt effects and the addition of fairy wings to the young model. These are selling as miniature prints, gift tags and bookmarkers.
I am also learning to incorporate my preliminary out-of-doors sketches and my studio drawings done back in the motor-home or house.
I joined the SAA (Society for All Artists) back in 1995, and have been published in the Members’ Gallery three times in January, July and September in 2004. More recently had a letter published in the ‘Paint’ magazine and I enjoy entering ‘Artist of the Year’ for the encouragement and challenge it gives me.
I like to portray my own memories of the place in the landscape and convey to the onlooker a mood and emotion which they can carry with them. I enjoy selling my paintings and get a buzz out of the satisfaction a customer gets when they personally receive a painting they like of mine.
A quote from one onlooker who admired my work said that:
"…it was dramatic, yet soft and evocative, conveying real depth and emotion, often with an intensity, viewed from an interesting angle to what would be otherwise an everyday scene…"
I hope you enjoy browsing my paintings and feel a magical emotion to the Islands’ landscape, which hopefully I have conveyed of the feelings, I received, first time I stepped on the Isle of Skye and the Outer Hebrides.
Enjoy!
Take a look at...
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