Unfurling Butterfly Painting

Hello fellow artists and art lovers, my name is Brigitte Ackland, I am a full-time artist living and working along the glorious coast of Western Australia. (Please follow me: Instagram: brigittesartwork and see videos of my artwork.) I cannot remember a time when I haven't expressed myself creatively: whether through painting, drawing, sculpture, mosaics, or photography. My motto in life: If I’m not creating, I’m not living! At 19, I attended Ravensbourne College of Art & Design in Kent, UK for my BA in Fine Art but, for personal reasons, quit half-way through my course. This didn't mean my artistic journey ended there, far from it! While at Art College, I discovered a love of photography and made full use of the darkroom facilities, creating abstract prints which further developed my artistic eye. Today, my camera has become a trusty tool of my trade, so when I'm not painting in my art studio, I take my Nikon with me everywhere to capture anything which catches my eye, adding to my vast library of images. I take these images a step further, by playing around with them in Photoshop, which provides me with new and exciting ideas for my paintings. After leaving Art College, most of my artistic training became self-taught. In my mid-20s, I attended an exhibition featuring a ceramic artist who greatly inspired me. Lucky for me, she also ran classes teaching her modern painting techniques, which I enrolled in. I took this a step further, when I learned how to create moulds for casting sculpture and jewellery, which I then handpainted using abstract motifs, highlighted with 22carat gold. My intense need to be creative has often led me to experiment with many different mediums and this is just one example. For 5 years, I was a full-time ceramic and mosaic artist. At 30, I travelled to Perth, Western Australia after I was commissioned by my brother to paint and decorate his entire house, using stencils I designed and hand cut to add artistic flair and drama to each room. While doing this, I met my future (and current) husband and so my life's journey continued in Australia, where I've resided for 26 years. After marriage, the children soon followed with one having special needs. This was quite a full-time occupation for me but I still managed to juggle the needs of my growing family with my artistic endeavours, accepting commissions in all areas of art.