“It’s not just a brush, it’s an experience. A ritual. It’s life changing and it’s your life.”

Artist Spotlight: Brittany Dixon

Please share a bit about yourself, as an artist, but also as an individual!

I’m a self-taught oil painter from the Gold Coast, Australia. My wish is to create art that evokes a magical sense of escapism and inspires viewers to get lost in the soul-stirring beauty of nature. I fell in love with painting while studying Communications at university and began to appreciate the peaceful escape that creating art gave me. I started painting every day and never stopped!

What do you like to create and why?

Animal portraiture has played a big role in the foundation of my career as an artist, and painting custom pet portraits for people is something that fills me with joy and purpose. I see it as an honour when a client trusts me enough to capture the animals they love so much in paint.

I’ve always been drawn to landscapes, too. The great Impressionists such as Monet, Renoir and Pissarro are a source of continuous inspiration for their depictions of movement, color and light. Staring into a painted scene is where I feel the power of escapism in art most, and this is something I’m focusing on in my latest ongoing series, The Gardens. I like the idea of the garden being a gentle escape from the everyday world, where you can exist at once among nature while also surrounded by human presence. There’s something special about being in a natural space that holds obvious human influence and care, either in nurtured roses or stone walls or statues or perfectly carved hedges. It’s that relationship I’m aiming to convey in this series.

What are your go-to Rosemary Brushes?

My favorite is the Evergreen collection. It’s fantastic that Rosemary & Co offer a vegan-friendly range of paint brushes using synthetic fur without compromising on quality. The Evergreens come in a wide array of shapes, and I’m always so impressed by how well they hold my oil paints and interact with the canvas, as well as their longevity. They’re also just beautifully designed!

The rigger is my go-to brush for detail work. I use size 0 for making fine touches like fur and whiskers in my animal portraits, or for stippling and creating leaf impressions in my dappled garden pieces. It is so versatile. The rigger’s ability to keep its shape while holding a lot of paint helps me to achieve perfect, even lines.