Michele-lee Phelan: Faery Worlds

The Australian Michele-lee Phelan is a very talented artist, who specializes in Pagan and Mythology pictures. Though she is 40 years old, she has been a professional for only 5 years. She is an example that we can always improve our lives and make our dreams come true, and also of how giving in to our fears can keep us from achieving our goals.



In an interview, she told that she felt discouraged both by the challenging financial aspect of art, which makes artists often live hand to mouth, and the heavy criticism artists constantly have to stand. Still in her teens, Michele-lee Phelan stopped painting, though it was her great passion, because she thought she wasn’t good enough, and only resumed it when she was 30 years old.

She spent years in depression, which she attributes to her repressed creativity, and was advised by her doctor to seek art as a form of therapy. She says that “The only way I could do this was to rebel. I turned my back on everyone’s doubts and questions, I quashed my own doubts and fears, and I painted.” [1]

Her particular interest in fantasy art is due to her unusual way of regarding life. Michele-lee Phelan comments on her site that she “have always loved the idea that we cannot see everything and that there are different planes of existence and reality. Fantasy allows me to peer into those hidden worlds and bring them to life within the hearts and minds of others. This I believe to be a very important key to healthy emotional and psychological development. To imagine is to create, and to create is why we exist.”

Acrylics, colored pencils on cotton watercolor paper are her favorite medium, and her greatest influence is award-winning illustrator Thomas Canty. She draws inspiration from many sources: “Sometimes they come from nothing, suddenly appearing fully formed in my mind as if someone had switched on a light bulb. Other times they will come to me in dreams, only partially formed and elusive. I will then sit for hours, trying to again see what I saw. Sometimes the idea will come back to me, while other times the concept will evolve and change as I put pencil to paper.”

Michele-lee Phelan is presently working as an illustrator and author for publisher Blue Angel Galleries, and has done artworks for oracle and tarot decks, and fantasy books. She is also working on her first book Dreams of Magick.

Check her site for more of her artworks and products personalized with her art. Here is a selection of two of her enchanting works.





Michele-Lee Phelan Official Site