Fairy Fights Bumblebee: Arthur Rackham @ Bees in Art
Fairy Fights Bumblebee by Arthur
Rackham
Following an early false start as a clerk, Rackham went
on to be one of the best known and loved book
illustrators of late Victorian and early 20th
Century Britain. Rackham's Victorian sensibility and
consummate draughtsmanship produced illustrations of
near hallucinatory scenes, which were full of danger
yet never dangerous and imbued with childlike
wonder.
In 1907 Rackham
illustrated the dreamlike Alice's Adventures in
Wonderland by Lewis Caroll, and fittingly went on in
1908 to illustrate Shakespeare's: A
Midsummer-Night's Dream. Widely regarded as one
of Rackham's masterpieces, A Midsummer-Night's Dream
features 40 coloured plates, including our fairy and
bumblebee battle. Populated by Shakespeare's
protagonists and other fairies and weird peoples, A
Midsummer-Night's Dream proved to be an ideal
vehicle for Rackham's
art and is now a much sought after book.
Machair Mecca: William Neill paints Bumblebees on the BBC
Please click the above
link to view this film of William
Neill painting bumblebees on the
BBC
Artist William
Neill loves
painting bees, and as such he must scrutinise his
subject. These close encounters have made him more
fascinated than ever by these incredible insects.
The wildflower meadows, or machair, of the
Outer Hebrides
where Neil paints are a
rare haven for bees and a reminder of what much of
Britain looked like before intensive farming drained
the landscape of its wildflower colour.
Bees in Art welcomes new artist William Neill
Great Yellow Bumblebee by William Neill
William has been fascinated by natural history since
the age of eight, when his family moved from town to
country, and has been painting even longer. He taught
art in Britain and Australia before moving to South
Uist, Outer Hebrides, Scotland in 1980.
The landscape and wildlife of the Hebrides, Scotland
are a constant inspiration, and William as often as
possible works from life in the field, using
watercolour and acrylic.
William runs courses on watercolour painting and
wildlife art, and occasionally teaches on the further
education and degree courses at Taigh Chearsabhagh, the
award winning arts centre in North Uist.
William's work has appeared in numerous natural history
publications. Notably he has illustrated the Scottish
Wildlife Trust's Discovery book of the Western Isles.
He exhibited in 2009 at the Scottish Ornithologist’s Centre,
Aberlady and as a member of the Society of Wildlife
Artists regularly exhibits at their Autumn
Exhibition at the Mall Galleries, London.
William Neill
painting bumblebees in his Outer Hebridean garden