"Celtic Tattoo Workbook" by Courtney Davis

St. David and the Dove Pendant, designed by Courtney Davis

"The Celtic Saints" by Courtney Davis

"Viking Tattoo Workbook" by Courtney Davis

"Courtney Davis has done a remarkable thing in presenting Celtic Art to us in this manner.  It is just what is needed at this time.  So many of us are fascinated by the mystery of these twining forms, but need some lead to help us understand and appreciate them."

- Sir George Trevelyan, The Art of Celtia

Courtney Davis is the world's leading exponent of Celtic Art.  His incredible works capture the magic and mystery of the ancient Celts in a manner unparalleled by any other artist.  His paintings use the same techniques and symbolism employed by the Celts, an echo of the past when man viewed the world with more spiritual eyes.  Courtney's genius is recognised world-wide; commercial success has lead the artist to publish around 50 books of his work and win countless fans.  Yet the most extraordinary fact of all about Courtney Davis is that he has had no artistic training whatsoever.

So how did this once ordinary man change from a grocer's shop-keeper to a world reknowned artist?  It is a story as magical, surprising and as spiritual as the artist's work itself.

Courtney's Life

Some may say that Courtney's art is the result of an ancient memory buried deep  within the artist himself. Courtney Davis himself a Celt, born to parents of Welsh, Scottish, and Irish descent in 1946, on October 31st - on the eve of the Celtic festival of Samhain.

While his birth place was Blackwood, South Wales, Courtney grew up in London.  He went straight from school into a job at a grocery stall, but this was not to last.  Courtney was born with a back problem, and lifting heavy boxes of fruit and vegetables exacerbated these problems.

Courtney was forced to look for other work. He took a position as an apprentice gold engraver and jewellery designer using diamond cutting tools to engrave designs on wedding rings. He soon discovered that he had a natural talent for the job, and found that his designs were in demand. He might have stayed with this job for the rest of his life, but a dramatic series of events occurred that turned his life around.

In 1974 with worsening back pain, Courtney went into hospital to undergo major corrective surgery on his spine. It was during the painful period right after his first surgery that he had the first of series of mystical experiences, which completely changed his life. It began with the sensation that his departed grandmother was manipulating and massaging his left leg and foot which had lost feeling from the surgery to accelerate the healing process. This was followed by a vision in which the wall suddenly opened, allowing the hospital ward to be filled with radiant light, smoke, and Otherworld beings. They were monks, who surrounded him and began a three-hour operation manipulating and cutting out sections of his back, and in a few minutes later replacing them, lifting him above his own body whenever they were working on any of its inner parts.

This experience and the death of his father soon afterwards lead Courtney to question what he really wanted from his life. He decided to quit his job as a gold engraver and joined a Buddhist temple in London.

Courtney began to draw in his spare time, producing mainly figurative images, but adding borders inspired by Celtic designs. To bring in a bit of extra income, he began to paint old furniture with designs inspired by Art Nouveau and the Pre-Raphaelites for sale at craft fairs and a gallery in the Kings road, Chelsea in London. He soon found that people were prepared to pay money for his paintings and created a range of cards and prints.

Courtney's Work

Entirely self-taught using gouache and ink, Courtney has turned out increasingly remarkable Celtic art, in a flow that has been ever gushing and ever fresh in imagination and design.

Each image starts with a simple pencil sketch before progressing to a full-size rough drawing. This rough is then taped to the back of a glass drawing board, which is positioned with a light source behind it. Courtney then paints the completed colour image using this rough as a guide. Most of the designs are painted on watercolour paper or artists' board using no more than six or seven colours of artists' gouache. The distinctive speckled effect that is a feature of many of Courtney's designs is applied over the gouache using technical drawing pens and brushes. This description makes Courtney's work sound like engineering drawing, but this couldn't be further from the truth. Courtney often feels that he is being guided. He explains, "When I start a picture I don't necessarily know what I'm going to draw - often the image will change as I'm working on it. It's taken me a long time to learn to just go with the flow of the picture rather than trying to plan how it's going to develop."

Courtney has spent a lot of time researching Celtic designs, and some of his work has involved recreating 'lost' images from early Christian manuscripts. Many of the early books were stolen from the monasteries by the Vikings who stripped the covers of their gold and jewels and threw the pages away, some were found by local farmers who would sometimes dip these holy books in water as a way of blessing the water, but of course this would dissolve the ink and cause the vellum pages to stretch and distort.

Recreating work like this involves detective work and intuition in equal measures. Sometimes only dots will remain giving a clue to outlines and figures not seen for hundreds of years. Celtic Illumination, published in 1998 featured many such images drawn from nearly thirty manuscripts spanning five centuries of religious iconography. His latest books include the Celtic Art Workbook series, 'Celtic Beasts', and the visually stunning The Celtic Celtic Saints. He has also begun to produce work for tattooists, publishing the Celtic Tattoo Workbook and the Viking Tattoo Workbook.

Courtney Today

Courtney lives with his wife Dimity and his two children, five-year-old Blaine and four year old Bridie in Salway Ash, a village near Bridport in the South of England. His small studio is immediately opposite the house, which is convenient as Courtney often works from six in the morning to eight o'clock at night in a converted eleventh century tithe barn, which he uses as his studio.

His work has been exhibited widely in Western Europe and was introduced to Chicago in 1995 at his first American exhibition. He has since exhibited regularly in the USA and in 1998 was the guest of honour at the Tokyo Celtic Festival. Future exhibitions and lectures are being planned for Norway, France, Italy, Australia and California.

Not only have many of his pictures appeared in his books, but some of the designs are now being re-created in glass by renowned Illinois artist Mark Duro.  And he has returned to the field of jewellery design, producing a new range of Celtic pendants for the Welsh company Seren Cymru. By now, many of Courtney's original pieces can be located in private and institutional collections, in chapels and in museums, where they are a source of inspiration, meditation, and healing for his patrons and friends.

You can visit Courtney Davis' official website at www.celtic-art.com

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