Golden Forest Monarchs is a large contemporary oil painting of a deer stag and a doe against an abstract autumn forest background. It is painted in thick, luxurious paint in warm autumn colours and glazed over with transparent golden paint, which makes it glow. The deer stand in the centre of the canvas with light behind them and trees in the foreground which they are merging with (as deer seem to do in real life). They are fallow deer, which you often see in the English countryside. This painting was inspired by the deer at Knole Park in Sevenoaks when I was there one October. There is a long, shallow valley that runs down the middle of the park, with families of deer in the trees on either side that bellow and parade around at that time of year. No matter how many deer I see, I am still captivated by them and have tried to show their magical nature. The painting style is messy Art Nouveau, and because it is painted in thick paint, it has facets that reflect slightly different colours at different times of day. The size is 40 x 40 x 1.5 inches; white-edged, deep-edge canvas, ready to hang; no frame needed.
