Scarlett Raven

In her latest collection, Beyond The Surface, Raven’s floral textured canvases are back, but this time, in stunning all-white compositions. The result is a captivating collection, absent of her signature bold colours yet bursting with emotion. This collection is of deep significance to the artist, who has experienced decades of challenges with her mental health.

Confronting her fifth nervous breakdown head-on, the original artworks in this collection were painted an incredibly difficult time for her earlier this year. Over the last four months, she has found solace working in pure white, removing the noise of colour. Through her unwavering commitment to painting, Scarlett has not only confronted her darkest moments but has emerged stronger, showcasing the transformative nature of creativity in overcoming adversity.

Combining her love for painting and her fascination with the escapism of nature, she channels the rawness and directness of abstract impressionism into a series of all-white artworks. In a departure from her vibrant canvases of the past, Scarlett’s latest artworks are stripped down to their raw essence.

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 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.

Scarlett describes creating a safe haven within her landscapes, made-up of several layers, floral foreground, expansive mid-ground, and an intense skyline background that the viewer can almost step inside of and feel the calming, exhilarating or cathartic qualities of nature for themselves, allowing viewers to step inside, take a deep breath and feel the grounding and awe-inspiring influence of nature for themselves. They create an escape, a safe place for viewers to feel whatever range of emotions nature and are inspire for them.

With stylistic influences from Vincent Van Gogh, Anselm Kiefer, Gustav Klimt and David Hockney, Scarlett’s distinctive painting style involves applying acrylic paint directly from the tube in thick impasto layers, delving into the emotional and symbolic depths of art beyond mere optical realism. The symbolism of flowers – beauty, growth, and renewal – resonates deeply with her and allows her to express her admiration for the impressionist painters who came before her. Raven has honoured Van Gogh once again in her paintings of white irises, referencing the time he spent painting them in a psychiatric hospital in Saint-Rémy, France.

In a landmark collection for Castle Fine Art, Scarlett Raven launches her Lasting Impressions series. Full of love for our natural surroundings, and inspired by her admiration of Vincent Van Gogh and David Hockney, Scarlett’s new pieces are her most passionate yet. The two artworks 'Sunset on Poppy Field' and 'Sunflowers Amongst Cypress Trees' are available as a giclée on paper as well as boxed canvas.

In the studio, she has found herself painting subjects and using colours that are new to her, incorporating the importance of the light source. She has been inspired and changed by being the mother of two children. “I feel that this collection is a milestone for me. I physically put everything into these pieces. Motherhood has made me absorb things quickly and has made me grounded and present. My children are teaching me".

Her breathtaking new collection, I am Reborn, symbolises her growth as both a woman and an artist; each wander through the forest is seen through a child’s eyes, encouraging viewers to rediscover their senses and embrace the beauty of nature. Her emotional connection with trees – which she says signify “protection, strength and motherhood” – is intertwined with poetry and stylistic influences from artists like Anselm Kiefer, David Hockney and Gustav Klimt.

Each of the three limited edition artworks is framed in a sustainable black ayous wood and was hand-embellished by our specialist atelier team. The accompanying original artworks were painted in oils and acrylics, with Scarlett using her expressionistic style of splattering paint onto the canvas to depict movement.

The new collection by Scarlett Raven and Marc Marot takes inspiration from David Hockney and Anselm Kiefer and showcases nature and its symbolism. Exploring new textures and materials has allowed Scarlett to develop her relationship with colour further, and experiment with the overall composition of her paintings.

Far from being a hindrance, Scarlett credits her dyslexia with allowing her to interpret and wield patterns and shapes, which she carries through into her work. This is key to the progression we see here in Scarlett’s landscapes; the previous predominantly horizontal orientation of her work has evolved to accommodate the towering majesty of the trees that have come to mean so much to the artist.

Telling an immersive story of the soldiers who fought and fell between 1914 and 1918, the body of work is created by painter Scarlett Raven and digital artist Marc Marot. It takes its name from the only tree left standing on the battlefield during fighting, with inspirations including the legendary war poets Wilfred Owen, Siegfried Sassoon and Rupert Brooke.

The project was inspired by Scarlett’s late father, Raphael, who passed on his interest in the Great War and the symbolism of the poppy to his daughter. In the series of interactive artworks – brought to life with the Blippar app – soldiers’ stories are transformed through poetry, film, music and narrations from celebrities including Christopher Eccleston, Vicky McClure and Sean Bean.

To date, The Danger Tree has touched the hearts and minds of thousands of people - featuring at prestigious locations including Liverpool's Martin Luther King Jnr Building, Manchester Central Library and Titanic Belfast. Transcending age, race and background, it speaks to everyone who knows what it means to love.