Mickey Mouse simply grew tiresome. It just wasn’t fun anymore for Alison Courtenay-Dunn to be working at Disneyland Paris. Initially intent on a career in hotel management, she realized one day that another world inspired her. She wanted to be surrounded by “colours, creativity and innovations”. “The yearning to be more artistic was always deep within me.” says Alison, remembering how her life changed one moment in the middle of Disneyland Paris. Stirred to be creative, to pursue an artistic path her parents had objected to, she was determined to live her dream. “Being a very tenacious 24 year old, I continuously contacted Paint Magic, until they gave me a job. Here started my fast track learning into paint, effects, marbling, wood graining, and gilding. I ran one of their studios and shops for almost 6 years, before starting up my own company Decor Artistry in 2000.”
Her determination and passion led to regular exhibitions of her paintings and bespoke pieces of artwork. Serving interior designers, architects, and private clients with beautiful classic and contemporary interiors, for a wide range of residential and commercial projects in the UK, and internationally. Alison does not play any musical instrument yet one of her favourite transformational projects is taking unwanted and damaged violins, restoring them with paint and 24 carat gold leaf into an intricately-detailed, hand-painted piece of art. It is a true matrimony of music, rhythm and painting. These instruments are reborn, transformed, loved and admired on someone’s wall. They become art works. After all, everyone deserves a second chance, don’t they? Alison believes that ‘there are levels of artistic ability, and recognise that some people are extremely gifted in their artistic talent, and this just comes so naturally to them. However she also believes that we are all creative in some way. ‘Creativity is a form of expression and we have all been created to express ourselves in a glorious variety of ways. I believe that people, who don’t feel that they are creative, just need to be encouraged on their journey into expression and freedom to be creative.’
LSA: Did you always feel like an artist? ACD: There has definitely always been that artistic yearning to be creative and expressive deep inside of me. I am so thankful for my perseverance and tenacity to follow an artistic path that gives me so much pleasure and satisfaction. This has rewarded me greatly.
LSA: What is your favourite way of expressing yourself? You paint not only on canvas but also on walls, furniture and violins. Why violin? What inspired you to start painting on musical instruments?
ACD: One of my favourite ways of expressing myself in Interiors with Decor Artistry, is painting murals onto walls – especially in children’s rooms. I love getting the children involved with ideas and inputting their creativity and dreams into the process, and then seeing their faces light up when they see the finale revealed. When it comes to artwork, my current favourite is the paintings on the violins. This originally started when years ago, a friend said that she had a broken violin that was no longer playable, but she didn’t want to throw it out, so she asked me if I could do anything with it. This started a much- loved journey of transforming broken violins into art. They get a second chance at life. It’s music, rhythm and painting coming together. I love the shape and beauty of violins. I am drawn to this particular instrument, and I also paint onto tiny 1/16 scaled violins under a magnifying glass, which is always a fun challenge. My untidy secret I’ll let you in on, is that I do have 2 cellos under my bed awaiting their transformation.
LSA: Why is working with children such a good feeling for you? Do you often have a chance to work with them?
ACD: Children have a wonderful free-spirited way of expressing themselves. They simply need to be encouraged to dream so that their fun imaginations and freedom to create isn’t shut down at such an early age. Children are so uninhibited and not confined to what something “should look like”, and I just love this freedom. Children enjoy the process of creating, no matter what the outcome. I think as adults we actually have a lot to learn from this. To be honest, with the variety of my work, I don’t get to dream and create alongside children as often as I would like to. But you never know what is just around the corner.
LSA: What do you want to say through your art?
ACD: I aim to bring a sense of hope, peace, freedom and life through my art. I want my art to connect people to the Master Creator…I just hope my humble attempt to convey His beauty, goodness and love can connect to Him through what I paint. For me, art has layers. One time that you look at a piece, you may capture something and engage with a certain feeling as you look at it, and the next time another layer, feeling, or something you see in it may be caught within you. I love this about art, because it isn’t static; there is so much to be released, seen, and impacted over time by just one piece of art. It also fascinates me how different people will view and interpret the same piece of art in their own unique way, and we all need the freedom to do this, because this is what makes us different individuals, and that makes the world fascinating.
LSA: What kind of project would be your dream come true?
ACD: That’s a great question, as it’s hard to nail it down to one answer. Being an artist who gets very excited by restoration and transformation, on the interiors side, producing effects, gold leaf and decorative finishes for a themed boutique hotel in a Chateau or Palace. That would be a brilliant dream. Producing personalised decoration and themes for each room and bringing in all the intricate details to make each space unique, and have a giant “wow” factor. That’s a dream to still be lived. On the artistic side, I love to see people transformed by the power and love of God through my art. So my dream project is producing art that is so fused with God’s love, that any person looking at it, can’t help but be positively impacted, transformed, and drawn closer to Him. My ultimate eternal dream project will be to still paint when I get to heaven.
LSA: What are the biggest challenges at your work?
ACD: My biggest challenges at work are often climbing up scaffolding and towers as I have a fear of heights. You may think it strange for someone to choose a career that involves working at heights when this is my biggest fear, but you can’t beat that feeling when you face and overcome the things that try to hold you back.
LSA: Do you have words of advice for artists who are at the beginning of their artistic path?
ACD: I would encourage you to be tenacious. Your perseverance will pay off. Be adventurous, and not conformed to a mould. Be unique – you have been uniquely created to do things that are reserved for you. Your hopes and dreams are important, so Dream big. Enjoy experimenting with your creativity and techniques, and remember that some of our biggest “mistakes” are there to be learned from, and can even turn into the biggest and best triumphs, a more colourful place.
LSA: One piece of art that you are most proud of?
ACD: I would say that the artistic project I am most proud of is my adaptation of Raphael’s cherubs, which I painted onto a ceiling rose in a stately home in Norfolk. First, ascending a scaffold tower and continuously overcoming my fear of heights – and secondly, the client changed his mind on details four times throughout the development of the ceiling mural. But I overcame these complications, and the finished result was very well worth it.
