2021, Digital Painting

“The Stag’s Head” was inspired by my studio name and my love of nature and symbolism. It was specifically designed to use as my artist logo.

Before now, I have always used a red deer for my studio logo. I have become fascinated by the White Stag of Merlin since visiting a small church in the French, Breton Forest of Brocéliande which has a stunning mosaic of the Merlin Stag. The local priest decided to incorporate local legends into all the art within the church which I thought was marvellous! Since then I decided to transform my logo into a white stag.

Nestled amongst the antlers of this stag are natural attributes which represent the four elements: earth, air, fire and water. At first I was going to create a dual stag of both my original red deer and the new Merlin’s white hart but as I was sketching it the fire spiralled up all on it’s own and I felt drawn to incorporating the four elements instead. All of the gems of nature I selected are picked for specific reasons but that is quite a bit to type about. Maybe I could write something on them in my future blog.

Take a peek if you can spot all the different elements! Her is a breakdown if you can’t spot them all:
Earth: Oak Leaf, Mistletoe Branch, Poppy Flower and Pixie Parasol Mushrooms (Mycena Interrupta)
Air: The Full Moon and Stars, Peacock Butterflies (open and closed), Bee and Blue Jay Feather
Fire: the central Fire Spiral
Water: Trumpet Shell and New Zealand Paua Shell