Suzanne Gyseman - Fantasy Art

I have always felt a close bond with nature. I grew up in the legend-haunted landscape of the west Wales coast. My favourite pastime was drawing cats, fairies and flowers. I also loved to read fairy tales and myths from around the world. My imagination became immersed in an enchanted world especially when at age twelve I discovered Tolkien‘s “The Lord of the Rings“, and I think that my mind has never left that mythic landscape. As a teenager I avoided discos and parties, preferring to wander in the woods or along the seashore, entranced by nature and hoping to glimpse elves and mermaids.

Because of my love for the natural world I studied Botany at university. After graduating I went to live and work in Exeter. During those years I wrote and illustrated my own fairy stories in my spare time. However, I found town life hard to tolerate, and after a few years moved to a remote Scottish island to live close to nature once again, keep the company of my favourite animals - cats, and concentrate on writing and painting.

Inspiration for my paintings comes from dreams and the Scottish Highland landscape where I now live. I celebrate nature and the Spirit that weaves through all things, the sense of wonder and magic that I feel when walking among old trees, on mountains, beside rivers. I hope that through my paintings I can share this magic with others.

Suzanne Gyseman
June 2005

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I have spent many hours drawing from the human figure. This pose suggested a sad faery unable to understand why humans can be so cruel to others. As in the lines of a poem by W.B.Yeats :
“Come away, O human child!
To the waters and the wild
With a faery, hand in hand,
For the world’s more full of weeping than you can understand.”

Mysterious forests and ancient trees grow close to my home. When I walk among the trees a strong sense of other presences comes over me. Images arise in my mind of the forms of dryads and other nature spirits. These images are interpretations of the energies I feel. To another observer the faeries may appear differently.

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