I draw many of the forest scenes from Glen Helen, a nature preserve by the village of Yellow Springs, Ohio. So if this looks more American midwest than England, I apologise. I have to work with what I have instead of pining for what I don't. I'm working from photographs at the moment since it's winter, and they are enjoying May, but at some point I'll get the seasons to sync up. The thing about Glen Helen is that its always had an enchanted feel. I sometimes think that if there were fairies in the Victorian sense, they might choose to live there. There were some very venerable oaks, almost to a Princess Mononoke size, but most of them blew down in a freak hurricane a few years ago. Yes, hurricane. You have to understand how far landlocked Ohio is from the ocean to appreciate the strangeness of that.
The Victorian concept of fairy- a supernatural winged being of miniscule size that embodies the innocence of childhood- does not yet exist. 18th century fae were more like the Irish Sidhe- powerful yet unpredictable creatures.... it might be safer to play Russian roulette than to mess with them.
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