ROWAN

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See, that’s what the app is perfect for.

Sounds perfect Wahhhh, I don’t wanna
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Hello, I’m Rowan, an artist from the UK. My main interests that find their way into my work are nature, fantasy, history and pattern design. FFXIV is a big love of mine and I make a lot of art inspired by it, and sometimes other video games too. Here are a bunch of links to places of interest:

🌟 Portfolio
⭐ Bluesky
⭐ Instagram
🌟 Mailing list for new artwork, print releases and thoughts about art

Print and Goods, etc:
🌟 My Shop & Etsy for original prints, stationery & goods
⭐ INPRNT & Redbubble for my fanart prints & merchandise
🌟 Spoonflower for my pattern designs on fabric, wallpaper and home decor
⭐ Ko-fi

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These prints are now available in my shop!

🌿Explore Familiar Paths 🌿

These landscapes bring together moments from familiar places, remembered and reimagined through illustration: not simply what they looked like, but what it felt like to be there, and an invitation to pause and notice the details that make a place memorable.

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illustration digital art artists on tumblr countryside original art print shop summer art prints
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These pieces are moments in time but they are also made up of many things. Field Path, the middle illustration here, is a patchwork of memories from different places, brought together by the hills I always look for as a landmark. In a photograph they look distant and tiny, but that’s never how they feel to me.

Even the wild rose, which is quite similar to the reference photograph, is still a representation of my memory more than a direct copy. Some things I re-drew several times or felt indecisive about, others I drew once and that was it, the first time.

The end result in each case is very much like what I see and feel when I remember these places, and I’m happy about that. I’m always seeking to convey feelings more than a literal representation of something. These two things do often go hand in hand, but perception and memory shape and change things. I think this is true even when I’m drawing from fantasy, because it has to draw from both real and imagined reference points and be processed mentally… The lines are often blurry between drawing from life and imagination.

illustration artists on tumblr countryside summer
rowanclair
rowanclair

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Just in case you missed it - limited edition prints of this illustration are now available!

✨shop.rowanclair.com✨

This artwork is rooted in a sense of wonder and mystery, drawing both from fantasy and from reflections of the real world, and our relationship to nature as humans.

It’s taken some work to get here, but I’m really excited to finally release these prints, and to do so on my own website, rather than a marketplace. To open an independent shop has been a goal of mine for a while, and hopefully in the coming months I'll be making more of my work available this way!

rowanclair

Many of these have found homes now, there are only a few left of each size. I’m hugely grateful!

If you bought one, or indeed any other print or item from me, I’d love to hear from you, just like I read and appreciate all of my reviews on Etsy… Please feel free to message me with thoughts or pictures, even if it’s not on display or anything.

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Just in case you missed it - limited edition prints of this illustration are now available!

✨shop.rowanclair.com✨

This artwork is rooted in a sense of wonder and mystery, drawing both from fantasy and from reflections of the real world, and our relationship to nature as humans.

It’s taken some work to get here, but I’m really excited to finally release these prints, and to do so on my own website, rather than a marketplace. To open an independent shop has been a goal of mine for a while, and hopefully in the coming months I’ll be making more of my work available this way!

illustration fantasy art original art artists on tumblr digital art print shop
rowanclair
rowanclair

Illustration of a clearing in a dark forest with pools of water on the ground among the trees and vegetation. In the water is a reflection of a cityscape with skyscrapers in vibrant orange and yellow with a bright blue sky, contrasting with the murky blue-green colours of the woods. In the far distance an early sunrise can be made out through the trees.ALT

In an ancient forest, shallow pools reflect not the trees above, but a luminous city of elsewhere.

rowanclair

Hello! The time is here at last, my new shop is open, and you’re invited to the launch of my limited edition print run of this artwork. Once these are sold, they won’t be available again in this form.

✨Find them here ✨

Or visit shop.rowanclair.com!

Thank you all for your support!

print shop keeping it short for now but i am very proud and excited i've been wanting to open an independent shop for a while now i think the prints are looking beautiful and i hope you love them

Here’s a video of me opening the sample of my new prints! I’m using a new printer and I’m extremely pleased with the quality, and I think you will be too.

The prints will be available in a limited edition of 3 sizes. They are beautiful archival prints, the colours are gorgeous and vibrant and exactly how I wanted them to look. Each print is digitally signed and numbered, and comes with a certificate of authenticity. Shipping is worldwide, tracked & insured!

I’m also really pleased to be able to say that the printing, packaging and shipping process is fully carbon neutral and uses FSC-certified materials. Sustainability is really important to me, and this is one of the reasons I wanted to start selling prints through my own shop. Not to mention, this artwork in particular was inspired in part by the relationship between humans and the natural environment.

They go live in two days on 1st July, hope to see you there ✨

illustration artists on tumblr fantasy art original art digital art print shop
rowanclair
rowanclair

Illustration of a clearing in a dark forest with pools of water on the ground among the trees and vegetation. In the water is a reflection of a cityscape with skyscrapers in vibrant orange and yellow with a bright blue sky, contrasting with the murky blue-green colours of the woods. In the far distance an early sunrise can be made out through the trees.ALT

In an ancient forest, shallow pools reflect not the trees above, but a luminous city of elsewhere.

rowanclair

The story behind this piece... It has quite a history behind it.

I've received a lot of questions and comments about it, some of which correctly guessed what I was inspired by, and others brought totally new perspectives I wouldn’t have considered. That’s one of the most interesting things about discussing artwork with someone, whether you made it or not. 

As I’ve been preparing to make it available as a print next week, I’ve been thinking about the process of making it a lot. It was created for the Cheltenham Illustration Awards last year, but the story started much longer ago than that. 

A few people have commented that my work reminds them of the Narnia books, or His Dark Materials - and yes, both of those were huge inspirations to me as a child. I’ve always been fascinated by fantasy worlds, and these stories that suggested there could be ways to visit them from our own world captured my imagination. 

Maybe this is part of why I’ve always been very interested in mirrors, reflections, windows and doors in art… Which is often what art is itself, in a way. 

Here are some pictures of the the oldest work I have that deals with the same ideas. Many years ago, I was living in London and as much as I adored everything that city has to offer, it didn’t take long for me to start growing incredibly homesick for quiet, rural nature. 

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I was working with installation and video, using reflections from mirrors and water and pinholes in walls to open windows from my studio to the places I longed for.

After I left London, that kind of work took a back seat for a while, but the concepts stayed with me. They began to evolve, from more abstract thoughts of escaping into nature, to entire worlds that took on a life of their own. 

This time, I wasn’t only looking to escape, but to reflect the things I was experiencing too. A significant part of that was observing the changing landscape, its fragility, and the impact we have on it as modern humans.

I resolved that I wanted to return to making art based on these ideas, but I hadn’t figured out how to start doing it. The opportunity came when I saw the theme of the Cheltenham Illustration Awards - “Tales of the Uncanny” - it just seemed like the perfect moment.

Although this was made as a stand-alone piece, there’s still a lot more I’d like to do with the same themes.