Scarlett Raven
Let Nature Embrace you in Scarlett Raven's New Collection | 2024

Scarlett is well-known for her exceptional landscapes, created with heavy impasto oil paint and soaked in vivid colours. Previously, her paintings have been made up of three key areas: her signature floral foregrounds; an expansive mid-ground up to a definitive horizon line; and strong a sunrise or sunset background.

The new collection of nine pieces features a dense overgrowth of wildflowers, sunflowers, poppies and daffodils. In it, Scarlett has worked on completely changing her perspective and zooming in on nature, painting closer and lowering the perspective of the viewer.

“I’ve been trying to lose the mid-ground for years,” explains Scarlett, “and these new paintings don’t need it, which is amazing. It’s exciting for me to paint so low to the ground and close-up to nature, completely enveloped in the flowers, and taking the viewer there, too. I think through the act of drawing and going back to basics, looking at composition and almost approaching the flowers anatomically and painting them in raw-form watercolour first has been so enjoyable, freeing, and expressive.”

Featured art: Nature's Nectar by Scarlett Raven. The original artwork is hand-signed by the artist. 

Scarlett Raven has a profound affinity with the countryside, flowers, and rural life and she has always been nurtured by the act of painting and being in nature. Since childhood, painting has been Scarlett’s way of understanding and accepting herself, and through painting and observing nature, she has been able to find a healthy way to live.

“Going back to drawing and watercolour really helped me,” says Scarlett. “I’m inspired by other artists, and I've got album after album on my phone where I put all the different irises, flowers; everything I see. Sunflowers were everywhere when I decided to paint ‘Sunflower Soul’ - there was a sunflower competition at my son’s nursery, and we grew them from seeds with my daughter.

“My husband and I did lots of gardening with the kids in the summer when I was working on the new collection, and we grew all these beautiful wildflowers grew so I was photographing everything in my garden. Every time we went out, we were picking and bringing back flowers, my son was learning what a dandelion was and how to make a wish on one. I think it’s really important for them to be out and connected to nature rather than just watching TV. This is my life - I’m either in the studio or with my kids. It’s really beautiful to share in nature and be inspired with them and by them.”

Featured art: Wild Blossom by Scarlett Raven. The original artwork is hand-signed by the artist.