About Me

Welcome to my little corner of the art world, where nature’s beauty comes alive through my oil paintings and pyrography.

Oh doesn't that sound pretentious? I started out with AI to get me going, sorry, my bad. I promise the rest of it is all me. First let me introduce myself, I am D L Knott, Dawn to friends and family, and I love creating art.

I grew up on the edge of a village, surrounded by open spaces, where I found a deep love for nature. Walks in the countryside with my family were a big part of my childhood, as was building "dens", climbing trees, and falling out of some of them. I tried to instil the same love of nature in my kids. They were dragged on more country walks than they probably enjoyed, but they do have an appreciation for nature (whether they want it or not). Now, nature is my greatest inspiration. Nothing man-made can ever compete with the beauty of nature. 

For many years, I believed I couldn’t draw a straight line. One day, out of sheer boredom, I picked up a pencil and tried it, and discovered I wasn’t as bad as I thought. With practice, I found I could draw a recognisable picture. Now, my biggest challenge is my health, which limits how much I can do and how long I can work. I keep a limited palette of warm and cool primary colours and titanium white, mixing the rest as I need to. When a painting doesn’t go as planned, I adapt, sometimes turning intended landscapes into abstracts.

Years ago, I painted abstracts in acrylics, but I found acrylics dried too fast and didn't do the soft blends I like. I also kept practicing my drawing. For some forgotten reason I stopped painting for many years; then my husband bought me a pyrography tool - scary looking thing resembling a soldering iron that I had no idea how to use. It took me almost a year to pluck up the courage to give it a go. To my surprise I found it's really easy if you approach it as a pencil drawing and take your time. I've been hooked ever since. The pyrography made me want to paint again, so I bought some oil paints. Bold move for somebody more familiar with acrylics maybe? Imagine my delight when I realised how easy it is to get those soft blends with oils, and then I discovered impasto! The combinations of those two are just what I was looking for in acrylics back before the wheel was invented. A second string to my bow. I've been practicing landscapes ever since. Like a lot of people, I’m familiar with Bob Ross and his “happy little trees,” and though I usually work from reference photos, I'd love to one day be able to just make it up as I go along like Bob seems to.  

I would love to believe my art reminds people how beautiful nature is. I would also like to think it gives people an escape from the built-up, man-made, can't-see-past-the-next-bricks-and-mortar-structure of towns and cities.  Of course, like every artist in the world, I would love for people to want my paintings, you just can't appreciate the wonderful tactile qualities of pyrography or impasto oils looking at a photograph on a screen.