Courtney Davis was born in South Wales on the night of All Hallows before the great Celtic festival of Samhain. From these beginnings its not surprising that he gone has gone on to be widely renowned for his contemporary interpretation of the ancient symbolism, myths and legends of the Celtic Culture and a leading exponent of the art of Celtia. In the 25 years he has been creating Celtic art he has illustrated over 50 published books and exhibited his paintings worldwide.

Driving into Abbotsbury on the South coast of Dorset is like driving into a page out of an Arthurian legend, which is appropriate as the person I'm on my way to meet is Courtney Davis, an artist whose designs evoke the spirit and style of the Celtic illuminators of more than a thousand years ago.

Courtney lives in Bridport, Dorset with his his two children,twelve-year-old Blaine and eleven- year old Bridie.Courtney often works from six in the morning to eight o'clock at night.On the windowsill there are genuine relics of St.Bridgit, St.Patrick and St.Columba, each one protected in a small wooden frame. These ancient relics share the room with some decidedly modern companions - a photocopier, fax and computer. Courtney uses the computer to create layouts for book pages and to work on his web site celtic-art.com, but admits to having something of a love-hate relationship with it! All of Courtney's paintings are still produced entirely by hand.

Courtney is currently working on a new book for Chimera Publishing which will be a retrospective book of his art over 30 years.The amount of work in some of the 54 published books is staggering. 'St.Patrick - A visual Celebration' has 128 pages with a colour illustration on every page. Most of the images are very detailed but he works incredibly quickly and often manages to complete one illustration a day.
Each image starts with a simple pencil sketch before progressing to a full-size rough drawing. This rough is then taped to the back of a glass drawing board, which is positioned with a light source behind it. Courtney then paints the completed colour image using this rough as a guide. Most of the designs are painted on watercolour paper or artists board using no more than six or seven colours of artists gouache. The distinctive speckled effect that is a feature of many of Courtney's designs is applied over the gouache using technical drawing pens and brushes. This description makes Courtney's work sound like engineering drawing, but this couldn't be further from the truth. Courtney often feels that he is being guided. He tells me "When I start a picture I don't necessarily know what I'm going to draw - often the image will change as I'm working on it. It's taken me a long time to learn to just go with the flow of the picture rather than trying to plan how it's going to develop."

His success didn't fall into Courtney's lap, but has come through consistent hard work against the odds.

Looking at Courtney's designs today, it's hard to believe that he has had no artistic training, but went straight from school into a job working in a grocer's shop. Unfortunately the job didn't last long. Courtney was born with a back problem, and lifting heavy boxes of fruit and vegetables exacerbated these problems. Courtney was forced to look for other work. He took a position as an apprentice gold engraver and jewellery designer using diamond cutting tools to engrave designs on wedding rings. He soon discovered that he had a natural talent for the job, and found that his designs were in demand. He might have stayed with this job for the rest of his life, but a dramatic series of events occurred that turned his life around. In 1974 with worsening back pain. Courtney went into hospital to undergo major corrective surgery on his spine. He was lying in the hospital bed after the operation when he found himself looking at his own body from the other side of the room and saw another operation being performed, this time not by the surgeons, but by a group of ethereal monks. This experience and the death of his father soon afterwards lead Courtney to question what he really wanted from his life. He decided to quit his job as a gold engraver and joined a Buddhist temple in London.

Courtney began to draw in his spare time, producing mainly figurative images, but adding borders inspired by Celtic designs. To bring in a bit of extra income, he began to paint old furniture with designs inspired by Art Nouveau and the Pre-Raphaelites for sale at craft fairs and a gallery in the Kings road, Chelsea in London. He soon found that people were prepared to pay money for his paintings and created a range of cards and prints. Instead of sitting at the stall doing nothing, he would often set up his easel and start painting. Courtney told me "One of the first shows I did was at Lambeth. I'd h
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