Firefly (1/50 Giclee Print of Original Watercolour). Painting

I’m Naomi Griffiths, an emerging artist, and new to Saatchi Art (June 2025). Primarily, I love to paint beautiful women (my ‘queens’) surrounded by greenery and flora, with the figure representing the ‘self’ and the plants representing the beauty and wonder of the natural world. If I’m not painting women, then often the subject will be a ‘fairy’ or ‘angel’ type figure, representing the spiritual self or soul, and this has been a recurrent theme in recent years as I’ve faced multiple bereavements. Many of my paintings consequently contain a human face or human-like face, through which I try to communicate thoughts, themes and emotions to the viewer through facial expression, body language, the use of symbols and the way each subject relates to her surroundings. Once someone asked me about of one of my paintings (Queen of Lights) “Why do I feel that she’s staring straight into my soul”? I couldn’t answer her in words, but I knew she understood my language. My medium is exclusively watercolour, and themes of light and dark often play out in my work, representing goodness, order and hope versus evil, chaos and despair. I try to express beauty and grace in everything that I paint, despite the darker elements, as I want to create images that soothe rather than agitate. My passion for art was ignited in 1979 when, aged 15, I discovered the newly published ‘Masquerade’ by Kit Williams, whilst working my Saturday job in a bookshop. I’d pour over it for hours, admiring the immaculate and charming little cultural and artistic details, and the characters he depicted with such brilliance. Since then, some of my main artistic influences have included Celtic and Medieval Art, the Old Masters, Religious Icons, Oriental Art and the Pre-Raphaelites. My work is also inspired by the beautiful scenery and nature of the English west country, where I have lived for most of my life. I’m extremely grateful to contemporary artists Andre Remnev, Catrin Welz-Stein and Daria Petrilli, all of whom have touched my soul and inspired me to ‘go beyond’. My biggest regret in life is not pursuing my dream to become a professional artist when I was younger. My biggest gratitude today is that I can pursue it now.