Katrina Mansfield is an artist who creates 'Fluid Art Animal Inks'.
Katrina works with alcohol based ink on Yupo paper (a synthetic paper) to create vivid and fascinating paintings of animals. The paper she works on allows a longer working time with the ink. Together with a blending solution she can allow the ink to flow freely across the page to create captivating patterns and shapes.
To create the defined image of an animal Katrina masks off the separate areas and works the ink into each of them, often working in one direction (top to bottom) to avoid the ink from bleeding into other sections. Katrina enjoys working with ink, she describes it as the most intriguing medium and at the same time most frustrating.
“It can produce magical results that you get lost in for hours and hours but it can also destroy the most striking pattern in the blink of an eye. It is exactly like nature itself, devastatingly beautiful”
Which is why she chose the subject of animals. “The creatures of this earth are both fragile and unbreakable, they are flawless and yet also imperfect. They add colour to our human lives, yet they are increasingly in danger of becoming extinct through our actions. This series is a reminder to all that we need the diversity, beauty and intelligence of these creatures in order to survive.”
The paintings take anything from 15 – 35 hours to finish and are principally made without the use of a paintbrush.
“I only use a brush if I have no other option or to place the white in the eyes, everything else is formed from the natural flow of the ink”
