Dream Worlds

Working with alcohol ink and acrylics, Hannah Rose creates fluid, fantastical paintings

- Hannah Rose

Forest Fae, alcohol ink and acrylic on Yupo paper, 16½ x 12 (42 x 30 cm) One of my signature fairies. They were a product of some imaginative play with my inks and a great way to express myself.

I am a mixed media artist from England and have been an artist for many years, taking my first commission as a teenager. Over my life, I have tried many different ways of creating work, but I now specialize in fluid media and a great deal of mixed media. The last couple of years, I have dedicated my time to my art more than ever and love the life that it gives me.

Most of my inspiration comes from nature, music and landscapes. However, I am also influenced by mythical stories and many abstract works. Ever since I was young, I was told I was “away with the fairies”—I guess there is a lot of truth in that! I started working with fluids because I immediately enjoyed the effects it was creating and found I could not stop.

The fluids I work with are high pigment inks, mixed with an isopropanol alcohol, known more commonly as alcohol inking. I love working this way because it allows for the colors to be moved around on a non-porous surface. For this, most of the time I use Yupo which is a synthetic paper, but I can also use primed and sealed canvas, ceramic tiles and much more. The combination of the ink, alcohol and non-porous surface means I can create pools of color and move them around the surface, forming shapes and patterns. It allows me to create textures and depths to my work that I had never seen before. On top of this, I will sometimes use acrylic paints to bring out more detailed images.