Ember Cant Art

Ember Cant Art Self-taught UK and creative magpie, mad as a box of frogs.

I gather motifs from folklore, nature, feminism, pre-Christian beliefs and lived queer, neurodivergent & disabled experience to create emotional storytelling pieces ✦

04/10/2026

A goddess, a body, a myth, and a lot to unpack. 🖤

This deep dive looks at Venus, Reimagined: the references behind her, what I changed from the traditional imagery, and all the little details tucked into the piece.

Link in bio!

01/10/2026

I’ve finally done a proper deep dive on OctoFae. 🖤

This is one of those paintings where so much of what I was thinking about ended up buried in tiny visual decisions, so I’ve gone through the whole thing properly: the creature design, the octopus references, the symbolism, the colour choices, and why I wanted her to feel both seductive and slightly dangerous.

If you like seeing how all the weird little decisions behind a painting fit together, this one’s for you.

27/09/2026

DEEP DIVE: Green Man, Reimagined

Green Man is one of my top favourite folkloric figures. This is also the piece that has taken me the most labour of any to date. I am so proud of him! Watch the video to get all of the lore, the folklore and the inspiration behind this piece xx

26/09/2026

Squee! I’m really excited to introduce you to Green Man, Reimagined 🤩

This dude took me days and days to do, and I really feel like he stretched my skills. I think he might be my best work to date.

He’s an A3 mixed-media woodland spirit absolutely stuffed with leaves, bark, moss, lichen, magpies, acorns, blackberries, tiny hidden details and rather a lot of gold.

There is so much I want to tell you about this one, but that’s a job for the deep dive. For now: LOOK AT HIM. 💚

Original available through my Folksy shop — link in bio.

22/09/2026

I have apparently reached the point in my artistic development where “romantic celestial le****ns forming a giant skull” is a perfectly reasonable starting point for a painting 😂

This has been such a labour of love. There are hours and hours in all those tiny leaves, flowers, mushrooms, bits of mos...
20/09/2026

This has been such a labour of love. There are hours and hours in all those tiny leaves, flowers, mushrooms, bits of moss and overlapping plants, and I’ve gone back over so many of them repeatedly to finesse the details.

I wanted the forest to feel like it was genuinely taking her back. Not just a woman lying amongst some pretty plants, but a body becoming part of the woodland around her. Ivy reaching across her, flowers growing through and over her, leaves and fungi gathering around her until the boundary between person and forest starts to disappear.

I’ve used actual British woodland plants throughout, including wood sorrel, dog rose, dog violet, wild strawberry, ivy, oak and birch leaves and tiny common bonnet mushrooms. Because apparently even when I invent an entire forest spirit situation, my brain still wants the botany to make sense. 😂

There’s something really peaceful to me about the idea behind this one. Not frightening or tragic. Just that feeling of being completely done with everything and wanting the forest to have you for a bit.

I’m really, really proud of how she turned out.

Forest Take Me, Reimagined
A4 mixed media original
Folksy link in bio 🖤

Opinions please: if you shop or sell art at Retford Arts Hub… there are limited pieces I can display there, so I have to...
19/09/2026

Opinions please: if you shop or sell art at Retford Arts Hub… there are limited pieces I can display there, so I have to choose carefully. Do you think it’s better for me to put my work that is more similar to the types of work they display, or the work that is really different? I realise it’s not a venue for anything too creepy or unnerving 😂

19/09/2026

HEARTWOOD DEEP DIVE: Heartwood started with a fairly simple idea: what if the heartwood of a felled tree was literally its heart?

She’s an amalgamation of a whole bunch of folkloric influences: dryads and tree spirits, sacred and inhabited trees, British woodland folklore, and that slightly unsettling sense that a forest might be much more alive than we suspect.

Plant nerds unite:

There’s English oak, ivy and wood sorrel growing through the piece, all based on real British woodland plants rather than invented foliage. 🌿

I also built all those near-black shadows from layers of indigo, green and brown rather than just reaching straight for black, which gave the darkness much more depth and shifting colour.

This was my first time painting a face lit from below, and also really playing with changing the colour quality of the light, with those bright golden accents coming up from the heart. I’m really, really happy with how it turned out. It’s definitely something I want to include more in future.

And yes, I am extremely attached to her. 🖤

Heartwood is an original A3 watercolour and mixed-media piece, currently available through my Folksy shop.

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East Retford

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