The origins of World War Fae

Fantasy art and the pursuit of becoming an accomplished illustrator has been in my blood since I was a child, copying my dad’s sci-fi book covers and scribbling ideas from fairy tales.

It all began really back around 2006 when I created this piece called New Beginnings.

I was inspired by some of the lyrics in Dire Straits track Brothers in Arms and felt that there was a sad poignancy to the tone of the song that I felt compelled to capture in a new work.

As the piece developed so too did a story, where humanity is at war with a foe like none it has faced before. A war against the very essence of nature… how could we hope to win a war of such magnitude, how far would we go to win such a war? How much destruction would we wreak to save our own pride… what would be the cost?

At some point, and I honestly can’t recall when or how, the idea came to me that the ‘enemy’ would be the Fae. The idea of mythological creatures being entwined with the natural world is ancient beyond reckoning, I guess as a lover of fairy tales from my youth that connection was made.

It was not long before I became obsessed with this character, a kick ass faerie who would put us in our place. She has gone through so many variations over the years, some that even pre-date the one you see here to the left but, Taarna is the faerie that whispers in my ears at night and fuels my passion to see this tale through!

It was the mid 2000’s and so the seeds of World War Fae were only a few passing thoughts that prompted a series of faerie paintings that you can see here below.

Roll forward to 2015, by now I had gone through an intense period of painting, not just fantasy and faeries but a great deal of traditional landscapes, portraiture and in particular wildlife all of which I very much enjoy (you can see some of this work on seancounley.com).

This had been mostly inspired by running a fine art gallery for several years and being exposed to a plethora of subjects and mediums, in was, for me, an extensive period of exploration, experimentation and development. But ultimately the paintings that I created, though enjoyed and loved and even purchased, they didn’t fulfil a need in me… Taarna was whispering with intensity!

It was during a solo exhibition in my local town that was a substantial showcase of a 100+ paintings, I had my epiphany! I looked upon the body of work that was a grand tour spanning from my earliest to my then latest work, and seeing it for the first time collected together in such a way that I came to realise that I had strayed far and wide from my early artistic pleasures.

Taarna finally had convinced me to tell this tale…

You can find out more snippets of story by looking through the gallery of images and other pages.

Thanks for taking the time to read about my story!