Where whimsy finds form,
and memory blossoms into image.
A Whimsical Lens
Francis Russell-Brett works in a language of whimsy and tenderness, where illustration becomes both storytelling and atmosphere. Francis’s practice drifts between digital drawings, painted works, and small visual collections that draw from nature, memory, and fleeting encounters with the everyday.
The artworks often inhabit a space between the ephemeral and the enduring – a pressed flower, a sketched café scene, a fleeting dream captured in pigment or line. Whimsy here is not lightness for its own sake, but a way of observing the overlooked: the curl of a petal, the flicker of a shadow, the warmth of a cup shared between friends.
Francis offers a counterbalance within the Atelier family: a world of lyrical illustration, playful detail, and a gentle reverence for beauty.
A sketch, a flower, a memory –
each becomes a world of its own.
Digital Illustrations
Florilége: Symphonie & Bloom
A flowering anthology of illustration and paint, celebrating beauty in bloom and imagination in motion.
A garden gathered in fragments – Florilège is a series of digital illustrations where blossoms, leaves, and botanical curiosities are arranged like a poetic herbarium. Each image lingers on the detail of the natural world, but through a whimsical lens: colours heightened, forms reimagined, petals drifting into patterns that are both natural and dreamlike. The collection invites the viewer to pause, to gather, to notice.
Café Collections II
Intimate moments sketched in porcelain light, where stories linger like steam on a cup
The café is a stage for fleeting stories. In this collection, painted and digital works capture small rituals of everyday life: a table half-cleared, a swirl of steam, the curve of a chair, the quiet hum of companionship. Café Collections is about noticing what passes too quickly — the familiar comfort of interiors, the warmth of social spaces, and the poetry found in something as simple as a morning coffee.
Café Collections I
A whimsical gathering where everyday café scenes brew into delicate illustrations of joy
Café Collection I invites viewers into a light-hearted world where café tables, cups, and street-side conversations are transformed into whimsical illustrations. Each piece balances charm and detail, capturing the poetry of small encounters – the tilt of a chair, the curve of steam rising from coffee, the quiet bustle of daily ritual. The collection celebrates the warmth of community spaces and the nostalgia of lingering afternoons, with playful colours and imaginative flourishes that make the ordinary feel enchanted.
Original Paintings
Beyond digital illustration, Francis returns to painting as a way of expanding whimsy into texture and pigment. These works are slower, layered, and tactile – yet they retain the lightness of line and curiosity of detail that define Francis’s practice. Whether botanical, figurative, or abstract, the paintings explore how whimsy can be translated into form, brushstroke, and color.
Portfolio
A SELECTION OF ARTWORKS
Francis’s world is one of endless variation – no two days, no two glimpses, ever the same. The selection below refreshes to offer just a handful of works from the Conservatory’s growing collection of paintings and digital illustrations. For the full catalogue and availability, please visit the Bunny & Ivy Conservatory.
About Francis
ARTIST BIO
Francis Russell-Brett is an illustrator and painter whose work traces the lighthearted beauty of everyday moments. Through collections such as Florilège and the Café Collections Series, Francis transforms fleeting details – a cup on a café table, a bouquet in bloom, the playful curve of a line – into imaginative vignettes that balance whimsy with quiet refinement.
Working primarily in digital illustration and painting, Francis approaches image-making as a practice of celebration rather than critique. Francis’s visual language is fluid, conversational, and rooted in storytelling, allowing ordinary scenes to unfold into layered worlds where memory and imagination intertwine.
As part of the broader Atelier family of artists, Francis offers a distinct perspective: one that leans toward wonder, warmth, and playfulness while maintaining a deep commitment to craftsmanship. Francis’s works find resonance in spaces where illustration meets fine art, bridging the boundaries between the intimate and the fantastical.
Created for You
HEIRLOOMS & MEMORIES
On occasion, Francis creates one-of-a-kind works that carry the intimacy of personal storytelling. These pieces are not separate from the artist’s practice, but rather born from it – heirlooms that capture a moment, a person, or a memory through Francis’s whimsical lens. Whether a painting to mark a child’s arrival or an illustration to commemorate a milestone, these special works become part of the Conservatory’s quiet narrative of beauty and belonging.
Whimsy is the art of seeing
the extraordinary in the ordinary.
Contact Francis Russell-Brett
For new collaborations, commissions, or inquiries, please connect with us.
We welcome conversations with brands, cultural institutions, curators, and collaborators.
The Atelier Family – SFA (Stephen Francis Atelier™) · SR (Stephen Russell-Brett) · SFA | design studio · B&I (Bunny & Ivy™)