About Me
Hi!!
I’m Annabelle, the artist of Whimsy Willow Studio.
I am an oil painter based in Cornwall. While that sounds idyllic, I have always been drawn to woodlands rather than coastlines. When I am out on walks, I have a habit of seeing dragons in the landscape before I see anything else. Perching in the crook of a branch with their tail coiled around a trunk, or sleeping on a flower. I sketch them when I get home, or in my notes app if I am going to be out for a while, and eventually they become my paintings.
I found my style the day I painted a dragon on a daisy. That painting is called Daisy Dreams (featured in my photo), and it was the moment everything clicked into place. And now my house is filled with these little creatures!
I work in oils now, having spent a good while doing digital art before deciding I wanted to get my hands dirty. I am mostly self taught; my school and college art classes taught me chiefly how to write an A3 double spread on the background and story of a painting, which surprisingly has proven more useful than I expected.
Some of my most favourite memories growing up was spent in my grandparents’ garden, mostly up trees and almost certainly talking to them. Their garden was the kind with so many old trees and quiet corners no one can find you in, and I spent most of my childhood convinced there were fairies in the undergrowth. It garnered me the reputation of ‘being away with the fairies,’ which I took as a compliment then and still do now.
Whimsy Willow Studio exists because I wanted to share this corner of the world with anyone else who loves fantasy, magic, and the possibility that an extraordinary little critter is living in the roots of an old tree, just waiting to become friends. If you are here, I suspect you might be one of those people.
I am also a considerable nerd about video games, reading, and of course, dragons, which will surprise nobody who has seen my work.