Kelly Stevens-McLaughlan
‘My name is Kelly and I live with two big dogs and my husband, in rural North West Devon.
I've been creative all of my life, but until I was 46 it was all done on a 'hobby' basis as I followed a career in other directions. But then one day I decided that it was time to change that and to focus on my love of painting and drawing. Things took off very quickly!
Since that time I have produced thousands of artworks and have built an international business. My art is collected around the world and features in many amazing homes from fabulous Scottish castles to ultra modern Malibu beach houses. I'm lucky to have worked with many of the worlds top interior designers, and have also supplied artworks to film and TV studios, museums, hotels and other wonderful venues around the world. My clients are really very varied!
I've had the privilege of living with many animals during my lifetime and have learned to appreciate all of their unique personalities and funny little quirks, and it's this that mainly inspires my artwork. But whilst most of my artwork is focused on animals, I also have a love of the sea and the natural world around us, and so I have also created many artworks that are botanical or ocean focused.
I work in two mediums; acrylics on canvas and also digitally. Sometimes I use collage techniques as well.
But I dont just paint pictures, I'm also a homeware designer and have created a large range of luxury cushions and very fabulous lampshades, that feature some of my most beautiful designs.
I'm more known in the US where I work under the trade name FabFunky and where we are stocked in around 500 boutiques and shops across every state.’
Despite her success in diverse mediums, Kelly's true love lies in painting with acrylics. In her studio she enjoys working with large canvases to produce vibrant, expressive paintings that capture the essence of her natural surroundings in North Devon. We are so thrilled to be showing a collection of Kelly’s original paintings at Lantic.
'The Naturalist's Gaze' - SOLD
Original Acrylic on Canvas. Framed in a pale green tray frame. Canvas size - 41 cm x 61cm. Framed size - 49.5cm x 64.5cm - £750
‘In the Quiet corners of Devon’s ancient woodlands, where moss carpets the earth and wildflowers bloom unseen, there is a legend of a most curious fox.
Unlike his kin, who thrived on cunning and chase, this fox was drawn not to the hunt, but to the mysteries of the green world.
Clad in a fine waistcoat and jacket, he wandered the forests with a leather-bound journal, sketching each leaf and bloom with meticulous care.
Some say he could speak the language of plants, whispering ferns and coaxing secrets from ivy-clad ruins. Others believe he was once a Victorian botanist who, lost in his studies, was transformed by the magic of the land.
But whether fox or man, his work remains - pressed flowers found in forgotten books, their names inked in elegant, untamed script.’
Story by Kelly Stevens - McLaughlan.
'The Florist Fox'
Original Acrylic on Canvas. Framed in a pale green tray frame. Canvas size - 41 cm x 61cm. Framed size - 49.5cm x 64.5cm - £750
‘Beyond the iron gates of an ancient garden, where ivy curled over forgotten pathways, there lived a fox known only as the Florist.
Clad in a well-tailored coat and a waistcoat brushed with the hues of autumn, he moved through the tangled greenery with quiet purpose. Upon his head sat a weathered top hat, from its brim delicate flowers bloomed in perpetual splendour, their petals swaying as if caught in an unseen breeze.
The Florist understood the language of roots and leaves, the silent wishes of blossoms yet to bloom. Wherever he walked, the garden responded, vines bending toward his touch, petals unfurling in his shadow.
Some whispered that he had never been born at all, but instead stepped from the pages of an old botanical sketch, a creature conjured by ink, imagination, and the wild, unbroken spirit of nature itself.’
Story by Kelly Stevens - MacLaughlan.
'Bramblekin' SOLD
Original Acrylic on Canvas. Framed in white tray frame. Canvas size - 90cm x 90cm. Framed size - 94cm x 94cm - £1,200
‘In the hush of early spring, when the frost still lingers at dawn but the air hums with the promise of warmth, Bramblekin emerges from the undergrowth.
His coat, woven with the blush of new blossoms and the green of unfurling leaves, marks him as a creature of the turning season. But those who glimpse him in the bracken whisper of something older - an ancient rite of renewal, etched into his very form.
Upon his back, half- hidden beneath the petals and ivy ,a pale sigil glows in the moonlight. Some say it is the mark of the earth itself, a sign left by the first thaw to call forth the new season.
Others insist it is a blessing from the spirits of the ferns, a gift for the guardian of Spring.
Whatever the truth, Bramblekin does not linger. He moves between the trees, scattering the petals with his footsteps, leaving behind only the scent of blossoms and the hush of something magical passing through.’
Story by Kelly Stevens - MacLaughlan.
'Rosebrim'
Original Acrylic on Canvas. Framed in white tray frame. Canvas size - 60cm x 60cm. Framed size - 64cm x 64cm - £590
‘When the autumn winds sigh their last and the winter hesitates at the threshold, there comes a strange and fleeting season - the time of the Pink Fall.
In hidden glades where the sun still lingers, the trees do not shed their leaves in gold or rust, but in a flush of vivid pink, as if the earth itself has blushed at the change.
It is in this world of fleeting colour that Rosebrim appears. His paws tread softly upon the bright leaves, his fur touched with the same warmth of the fading sun.
They say he is the keeper of the in-between, a wanderer of seasons who never stays too long in any one world.
Those who catch a glimpse of him know they are standing at the edge of something rare - a moment where autumn and spring reach for one another, and time itself takes a breath before the frost settles in.’
Story by Kelly Stevens - MacLaughlan.