The Moon Dryad, a painting

A dryad is a tree spirit, usually female. Although dryads are commonly found in Greek mythology, there are many figures in Celtic myths and other traditions that certainly draw parallels to these arboreal deities. I've been enchanted with dryads for as long as I can remember. 

The first time I painted a dryad was in high school, on a sheet of thick, brown paper that was 8 feet tall and 10 feet wide. I was dipping my toes in the fantastical art my heart was yearning to create, but mortified when, during class critique, my classmates and teachers criticized the work as being too "cartoony" and underdeveloped. I saw the painting as a failure and just pushed the desire to paint my inner dreamscapes far away for a long while. Not that the criticism was inaccurate-- it was just too much for the delicate beginnings of these themes I was creating, and too much for my hyper-sensitive personality (which was even more extreme back then). 

So! Fast forward nearly ten years, and this is my most recent painting. I've named it, "The Moon Dryad". 

"The Moon Dryad"

This is a huge step for me. I'm really pleased to see how my dreamscapes are channeling through the paint.

-Blessings-