Rustic Raven

Our new Etspiration artist creates incredible artwork of layered photographs with their color impeccably preserved on paper.  RusticRaven uses very few figures and colors in her work, relying more on single colors and position to create the mood.  And that is what struck me most about her work: Atmosphere.  Sometimes I felt warmth, sometimes movement, at other times tranquility.  Deftly manipulating shadows and contrast, she can tweak an image to bring out its essence.  (All images copyrighted to the artist)

I absolutely fell in love with this image, "One with the Wind Spirit Horse".  The texture that she has created can be felt without touching, and it merges wonderfully with the horse's mane and the mountains in the background.  It gives the picture a rugged, tough quality, making one feel like they are horseback riding in Santa Fe.  I love the whispery feel to the horse, as though a brisk wind could sweep him away at any moment.  He feels like, as her title says, a spirit rather than a solid animal.  The whole image, covered with the same texture, carries this same quality.  A touch of the wild within.  It lends a magical, fairy-tale quality to the piece, and what inner child wouldn't respond to that?

Speaking of fairy tales...this dreamscape "Morning in Fairy Land" is imbued with soft, tranquil colors and edges.  Nothing is sharp or abrasive; you could sink into that pool and stare up at the sun peeking through the trees for all eternity.  The sunny haze in the background fills you with cat-like sleepiness, and a sense of security.  The colors all blend together beautifully, and I love the contrast between the green and yellow trees with the darker trunks and rocks. 

Simple, peaceful, lovely: "Orchids".  This would look good in any room with any color scheme.  I adore the slight vintage, renaissance quality to it.  The orchids have a harder, starker color to them that sets them off from the background.  The white color allows the background to be busy and filled with texture and color without making the piece overwhelming.  The background helps to bring out the pureness, the serenity, of the orchid. 

I also love the colors and textures she chose for the background.  All of her pieces have a rugged quality to them, like they were etched on the wall of a cave.  I adore this, and it helps to generate the mood of her pieces.  Nostalgia comes to mind with this one, of times past but remembered fondly. 

"Yellow Warbler Little Bird with Berries in the Tree Branches".  The colors in this are stunning.  She has pulled out the brightness in the blue without making it neon, and her ability to play with the contrast in a piece is wonderful.  The yellow of the bird and the red of the berries are set off from the blue so as to draw the eye to them, but are subdued enough in color to avoid garishness.  None of her pieces have clashing colors or jarring ensembles.  Everything always melds together and leads the eye to the appropriate place without dragging it there. 

I enjoy art that shows the spirit of the person creating it, the stories that have molded them into the being that they are today.  I can feel that with RusticRaven.  Her sense of the wild, untamed part of each of us, the part that sees in colors that are as "alive" as in her pieces.  Because that is how I see the pictures she creates: she takes something and makes a picture of what it looks like beneath the surface, if our eyes could see beyond the mundane and into the spirit of the being.  Whether it be a horse, a bird, or a flower, she shows them as alive as they really are. 

Her technical skills need no mention: just look at the pictures.  She has an innate ability to know when enough is enough and not to add too much to a picture.  She can match colors together beautifully, and her textures are out of this world.  She delves into the mystical, the wild, the ordinary, evoking moods and creating atmospheres.  Head on over to her Etsy shop here and view the rest of her beautiful images!