Gill Bustamante's Gallery Back

Art nouveau party horse is a 30x40x1.5 inches oil painting on canvas of an Arab horse but painted in an art nouveau, rather playful style. This painting began life as a serious portrait of a beautiful bay stallion. However, it was boring so I decided to see what would happen if I made it into a Gustav Klimt style painting. I added lots of gold and some little patterns and marks that transformed it completely. I am very fond of paintings that show an interplay between traditional and abstract so am now very happy with this painting as it looks like a conservative horse who has gone to a party and is letting his hair down (hence the name). The background and edges are gold and it does need a frame and is ready to hang.

Bluebell symphony is very large original oil painting on canvas (48x48 inches) of a Spring woodland painted in a semi abstract, impressionist style. As it is a large painting, it gives the viewer the feeling that they can walk into this golden Spring wood with its bluebells and wildflowers and green trees and follow the sunlight path out to the fields beyond. A glowing yellow stag can be seen near the path looking at us imperiously as stags do. He is a guide to somewhere wonderful but is assessing our intentions before he leads us forward. In the foreground to the left is a large tree which sets the perspective for the rest of the painting. The bluebell flowers and leaves are painted in a semi abstract style which by their colours and positions hint at what they are but in an ambiguous way. This is because when I painted this it was from memory and I remember impressions and colours and motions but not details. I like it this way as it gives a transient feel which is what I wanted to capture here as that is what bluebell season is. For many people it is their favourite season (including mine) and I am happy to have painted a place where I can escape to a Spring woodland among the trees and flowers whenever I have had enough of an English winter... It is 1.5 inches think, edges white, frame not necessary, ready to hang.

30x40x1.5 inches red forest calls is a red oil painting made in a variety of rich reds, crimson, scarlet, yellow and purple. It is painted in art nouveau slightly abstract style and shows a red deer stag deep in a red forest while above and behind him some female deer call to him from the edge of the trees. There is a tentative message in this - females being the voice of reason when males get riled up maybe? but mostly it was painted because I love deer, I love red and I love deep dark forests. It is painted on deep edge canvas and the edges are also red. Framing not necessary.

A 30x30 woodland path abstract landscape painting in rainbow colours. This painting was painted after a walk I took near Glyndebourne in East Sussex. It was a beautiful clear autumn day and the path was lined with trees glowing yellow, red, purple and green in the low autumn sun. This path led up to a steeper path that eventually goes to the top of the South Downs. I tried to capture my impression of the place in an abstract, possibly expressionist style using very thick wet oil paint and I worked into (wet into wet) over the course of two days. I wanted to capture the low angle of the sun and the impression of the light through the leaves picking out glimpses of ivy on the ancient trees, ferns and leaves in autumn golds and greens. I was very pleased with the result as it gives a satisfying flavour of the scene and how I felt being there rather than trying to be traditionally realistic. I love paths such as these as I always imagine something fantastic being about to be discovered just around the corner. Sometimes I am rewarded with a glimpse of a deer or fox but usually a view through trees to another world keeps me very happy.

A 30x40 inches original oil painting of an abstract woodland landscape in Spring with bluebells and a dryad. This painting is art nouveau and semi abstract and it shows a dryad (tree spirit) emerging from her tree so that she can attend to bluebells in her woodland garden. The colours range from deep purple through to cool blues, greens, magenta and golden yellow. I have used golden yellow in to give the idea of light glinting off of the trees and flowers in small beams of light. My aim was to catch a bit of the essence of the colours and light through trees that you get in a Spring woodland and to show the colours and exuberance of a bluebell wood but as an impression rather than making a botanical study. The dryad was added in later because I rarely paint people so thought I would make an exception. I spend alot of time walking in woods and forests around Kent and Sussex and I am fascinated by the atmosphere you get in them. Some woodland is welcoming, some can be sinister and I always feel as if I being observed so why not by dryads as well as the birds and foxes and wildlife?... Painted on deep edge canvas, white edges, no frame needed.

A large 36 x 48 x 1.5 inches semi abstract red original oil painting of three magical red deer in a red dawn. The three stags stand and stare at us through a haze of red light. Behind the middle stag is a rising morning sun and there is a suggestion of trees and a lake behind them. Two portals lead out of the landscape and elsewhere. The dawn sky is pink. In the foreground are strange red shapes that could be poppies or may be something else materializing. The painting was inspired by the fact that I wanted to make some red art with some power to it. Deer have a mystical and enchanting presence naturally so made a good subject. Painted on deep edge canvas, white edges, no frame needed.