The Digital Art of Sally Davies
I’m so lucky to live on the West Dorset coast – in the small market town of Bridport – and there is so much here in this glorious part of England to inspire my digital art.
But, stunning though these surroundings are, how many of us really look beyond the surfaces? For example, a Victorian drainpipe with decades’ worth of paint flaking away, or an old peeling door or weathered fence they all have their own textured beauty and make interesting backgrounds to my slightly surreal pictures. Into these I layer the flowers or trees that are my passion, adding, altering, perhaps introducing hand-painted elements, using imagination but inspired by location. It’s about seeing what’s around you and then playing with it. I get to combine three of my loves – photography, nature and art – into my work, and have fun at the same time.
I got into this late, having enjoyed (after art college) a long career in fashion. However, a growing love of plants eventually diverted me to horticulture, where I used photography as a marketing tool. In the end, the camera won over the plant nursery’s cold winters and I turned full-time to photography now digital which led to the new-ish field of digital art, or photo-art as it’s sometimes called. I think the best way to describe what I do is that, using a computer, I paint with photographs and I only use my own photographs. Living here I have plenty to draw on.
My workspace, a light and airy glass-walled studio on the St Michael’s Estate in Bridport, is shared with portrait artist Elizabeth Sporne, and our two vastly different forms of art work well together. The studio is open to the public (almost) every Saturday… please contact in advance to be sure I’m there!