For over fifty years, Paul Taggart has been story-telling through works of art, in which he creates paintings that capture a never-to-be-repeated, ‘moment in time’ – depicting subjects that share an insight into the essence of life. Whether portraying a narrative landscape, individual and group portraits of people going about their daily lives, figurative compositions of everyday artefacts, or chronicling a live event – all of which have, at their heart, a story to tell. Most days Paul is to be found at the easel in his Steading studio, based in the Northern Highlands of Scotland - either working on more writings and paintings for Paul Taggart’s Elphen Chronicles, or his most recent Masterworks collection of Fine Art, not to forget, his latest tutorial.
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Yet, something else has also occupied a very special place in his heart, emanating from a magical
experience in his childhood. A happening that he never felt able to explain at the time,
which finally, can be told in ‘Paul Taggart’s Elphen Chronicles’.
As sole author and illustrator of the ‘Elphen Chronicles’, Paul Taggart harnesses his creative expertise and traditional painting techniques to portray the Elphen, in works of art that visually chronicle their lives and depict the worlds that they inhabit.
For his first book in the Elphen Chronicles, Paul turned to watercolours to illustrate his written account of the quest lead by Lacewing and Starfire, witnessed by Artimus Glin, the itinerant artist; whose grandson Zand inherits his passion for art, as now recounted in the Paintbox Tales. Published privately in the 1990’s, as a Limited-Edition hardback book, this chronicle was also produced as a Collectors Leather-bound Portfolio Edition, for which Paul produced a separate, unique set of hand-watercoloured lino-cuts.
‘Webstrand, the Tooth Gatherer’, fifteen years in the writing and painting, started out in watercolours; but soon Paul realised that this epic Elphen tale had to be chronicled on a grand scale. Nothing less than large-scale oil paintings would suffice, to reveal the work of Webstrand and her Gathering Swarm, along with their significant role in the Elphen world. For ‘Webstrand the Tooth Gatherer’ Paul turned to his repertoire of traditional oil painting techniques for the thirteen, large-scale Masterworks, which appear as full-plates, along with a further four, smaller-scale Masterworks portraits and a couple of miniature Masterworks oil paintings.
These techniques enabled Paul to depict panoramic views, filled with detail; evoke feelings of horror, terror and delight; capture the extraordinary world of Shimmistra; portray the challenges that Elphen have to overcome, every day of their lives. A further one-hundred and twelve Storytelling Vignettes that accompany the story throughout are wrought in an oil painting technique, which Paul uniquely developed, specifically to do justice to the Webstrand chronicles.
Ultimately a set of six short stories that chart Zand’s first meeting with Weftwing, the passing over of his grandfather Artimus Glin’s legacy – a paintbox of considerable promise and importance – along with the subsequent quests and consequences of his development as an artist, inspired and guided by the Elphen. For these short stories, Paul sought to evoke his childhood experience, as seen through the lens of his younger self, when all about seemed larger than life. Turning to miniature Masterworks oil paintings, allowed Paul to reflect that memory of his fascination with minute detail – which in turn, led Sunita to work the stories into miniature books, no bigger than the size of a standard CD sleeve.
Embracing the three principal creative strands of art & design, writing and music - ‘Paul Taggart’s Elphen Chronicles’ is a multi-media project that brings these arts together in different forms – as published volumes, video and audio versions, hard copy and online digital formats.
Follow us to Paul’s Highland studio, from where he shares his love for all things Elphen and his passion for creating beautifully crafted artworks with which to illustrate their lives, as the one-and-only Elphen chronicler.
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED 2024 – Paul Taggart has asserted his Rights as the Sole Artist & Author of Paul Taggart’s Elphen Chronicles. ALL RIGHTS (including Music) owned by Paul W. Taggart, Eileen M. Tunnell, Sunita J. Gahir [The Three Quills]
The Three Quills studio, symbolising the trio of creative strands that are art & design, writings and music.
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Paul Taggart – Artist : Author : Presenter : Producer [Sole Author & Illustrator of ‘Paul Taggart’s Elphen Chronicles©’]
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Eileen Tunnell – Project Director, Producer, Video Auteur ‘Paul Taggart’s Elphen Chronicles’
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Sunita Gahir – Design Director/Producer ‘Paul Taggart’s Elphen Chronicles’
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Liza Mulholland – Music Director/Producer ‘Paul Taggart’s Elphen Chronicles’