Aberdeenshire artist Fiona Michie draws on folklore and fairy tales to inspire her haunting works on paper…
‘As children, my brother and I would sit by the fire while our mother told us tales of the Green Lady of Fyvie or the Wandering Soldier of Foggie Hill. I loved reading ghost stories and supernatural tales. I now tell my own stories through my drawings.
‘Drawing is part of me. Much of my work is the visual equivalent of the Victorian gothic romance novel. My drawings can be small or up to two metres long and a metre and a half wide. They are of young women roaming woodlands, ruins and moonlit rooms.
‘My ideas often start with a fleeting image, taken from a moment in my daily life, or sometimes an image in a magazine or a film still. I keep it in mind, then make sketches, take photos then create my composition. For me, it’s a very intuitive and organic process and I always work from my gut, allowing the drawing to become its own.
‘I took a degree in printmaking, then a Masters in Contemporary Drawing. I love working with compressed charcoal, pastels and watercolours. Charcoal fits so well with the ideas behind my work. I also love the simplicity of black and white and its symbolic references; darkness to light, light into darkness, life and death.
‘I have a solo exhibition planned for His Majesty’s Theatre in the Dress Circle exhibition gallery this year and have two books of illustrations due out early in 2016.’
For information about commissions from Fiona contact info@fionamichie.com
www.fionamichie.com