castle in the air

Castle

2009-11-14T07:07:00.000-08:00

Here's another one of my castles.

Castle

2009-11-14T07:06:00.000-08:00

Took about a week to finish this. *sighs* Oh well, it's progress.

Babes in the Wood

2009-11-14T07:05:00.001-08:00

I wanted to paint something sad and autumny a while ago and I thought of this poem Babes in the Wood

The Babes in the Wood

My dear do you know
How a long time ago
Two poor little children,
Whose names I don't know,
Were stolen away
On a fine summer's day.
And left in a wood
As I've heard people say.

And when it was night,
So sad was their plight,
The sun it went down,
And the moon gave no light!
They sobbed and they sighed
And they bitterly cried
And the poor little things,
They lay down and died.

And when they were dead,
The robins so red,
Brought strawberry leaves
And over them spread;
And all the day long,
They sang them this song--
Poor babes in the wood!
Poor babes in the wood!
And don't you remember
The babes in the wood?

And of Hansel and Gretel too and this cover from a Golden Book we had at home, with the creepy fox in the background.

And ultimately, I painted this:

Painting teeny tiny people takes an awful long time. This was nothing like as easy as the castle paintings I have been doing, where the clouds are so fun they get finished very quickly. This was the rest of my experiment with the frisket. I used it on the little figures and on the foregrounds bushes and the animals. It worked extremely well and peeled off perfectly even after being on for over a week with no stains. I think it will become a permanent fixture of my supply box.

Goblin Market

2009-08-25T16:58:00.000-07:00

I think that Goblin Market is a very moving poem about sisterhood. This painting is an attempt to illustrate the following section of poem:

She clipped a precious golden lock,
She dropped a tear more rare than pearl,
Then sucked their fruit globes fair or red:
Sweeter than honey from the rock,
Stronger than man-rejoicing wine,
Clearer than water flowed that juice;
She never tasted such before,
How should it cloy with length of use?
She sucked and sucked and sucked the more
Fruits which that unknown orchard bore,
She sucked until her lips were sore;
Then flung the emptied rinds away,
But gathered up one kernel stone,
And knew not was it night or day
As she turned home alone.

The poem is so visual that I find it very inspiring. I have some more sketches worked up for parts of the poem.

Snow White's Vengeance

2009-08-24T13:16:00.000-07:00

This picture was inspired by the Grimm version of the tale, in which the evil queen is forced to dance in red hot iron shoes.

A Gnome Home

2009-08-08T15:42:00.001-07:00

This is what a gnome looks like at home. Apparently gnomes can be distinguished from other fantastical creatures because they are somewhat more benevolent and they are caretakers of nature. This gnome has a great many insect pets.

Troll Rogue

2009-08-06T12:11:00.000-07:00

This is a troll rogue from World of Warcraft. He's just killed a Fen Stalker in Zangarmarsh.

Faris and Hydra

2009-08-06T12:06:00.000-07:00

This is some fanart based on the character Faris Scherwiz from Final Fantasy V.

Owl and the Pussycat II

2009-08-06T12:04:00.001-07:00

And hand in hand, on the edge of the sand,
They danced by the light of the moon,
The moon,
The moon,
They danced by the light of the moon.

The Owl and the Pussycat

2008-09-06T22:21:00.001-07:00

For my grandmother's birthday, since she is very fond of cats: The Owl and the Pussycat.

I had a lot of fun painting this and I am not sure why. Maybe it's the absurdity of an owl playing a guitar. At any rate, I have a sketch for another painting from this little poem and I'd love to do the turkey on the hill and the pig with the ring as well. I wasn't even aware it was Edward Lear until I had looked it up for the actual wording. Hooray for limericks and nonsense!

Tam Lin

2008-07-18T09:25:00.000-07:00

I'm revisiting the Tam Lin ballad. This is Janet approaching the fairy procession in order to pull Tam Lin down from his horse. I've taken some liberties with the exact story.

Beauty and the Beast

2008-07-10T20:03:00.000-07:00

Painting
45x60 cm
watercolour
FINISHED

It's been awhile.

My friend Melissa's favourite fairy tale is Beauty and the Beast. This is for her. I wanted to depict the scene where Beauty returns to the beast after a long absence and he is very ill. This is when she realizes she loves him.

Thumbelina

2007-11-20T18:52:00.000-08:00

For the baby shower of a friend of mine I decided to paint a picture for the baby's room. I wanted the theme of the painting to be joyful and uplifting. I thought about it for awhile and browsed some stories and I remembered Thumbelina as a story with a happy ending. I had a vague idea to possibly paint Thumbelina with the wings she receives at the end of her tale.

Re-reading the story I identified her escape on her sparrow-friend as a moment of triumph and adventure, suitable for the feeling I wanted to convey. I know the girl in this picture is much younger than Thumbelina ought to be at this point given she's already been nearly married once and is about to be married again, but I wasn't really concerned with being accurate to the tale so much as capturing a mood of freedom and happiness.

I hadn't really thought about the attention such a gift would garner me until I was sitting there waiting for my friend to open it. Everyone wanted to know who had done it so I gave a feeble little wave and tried to act like I didn't feel totally silly. Of course the important thing to me is that Abi and her mother both enjoy it.

Painting
23x30.5cm
watercolour
FINISHED

Speculative Fiction Challenge

2007-10-13T09:48:00.000-07:00

As usual, the Book Ninja has dreamed up an excellent plan, this time for a book reading challenge: Speculative Fiction Challenge.

To participate you basically choose six books from the categories:
Science Fiction
Fantasy
Alternate History
Magic Realism

Then you read these books before April 8, 2008.

There are prizes, but I am sure everyone will quickly see that the real fun will be in reading about everyone else's book choices, since Renay has asked people to provide her with links to book reviews in relation to this project. I still have to decide which books I plan to read which will be hard for me since I have lately taken to just browsing whatever the library has to offer.

The Wild Swans

2007-09-21T07:34:00.000-07:00

Painting
45x60 cm
watercolour
FINISHED

The Story
The princess Eliza has eleven brothers and all of these children are happy until their father marries an unpleasant woman who cares for none of them at all. First she poisons the king's mind against them, then she casts a spell on them, but the spell fails partially because rather than turning into ugly creatures they become eleven beautiful swans. Eliza is sent away to live with a peasant woman.

For a summary of the story and my thoughts on the fairy tale continue reading.

When she is fifteen Eliza returns home, partially because her father wants to see her. Her stepmother prepares a bath for her in which she places three toads. She kisses each toad and instructs one of them to make the girl stupid, one to make her ugly, and another to give her evil thoughts; however, when Eliza steps into the bath the toads are transformed into harmless poppies by her goodness. Annoyed that her plan has gone awry, the stepmother smears the girl's face with walnut juice and tangles her hair with some kind of ointment, all of which Eliza bears without any form of protest, apparently.

The king immediately renounces this hideous creature when he sees her. In fact, apart from a few animals about the house no one can see through this simple transformation.

Eliza leaves and walks until she reaches a forest where she washes her face and hair. She quickly becomes lost and falls asleep amidst a sea of glowworms in the forest where she dreams of her brothers. She continues wandering for another day and night during which God and his angels guide her out of harm's way.

The next morning Eliza meets an old woman who gives her some berries. When Eliza asks her if she has seen eleven princes, the woman says that she has not, but instead has seen eleven swans wearing golden crowns. Eliza follows the river to the sea where she meets with the swans. She recognizes each of her brothers at once and embraces each one and calls them by name. They tell her of their life as swans and Eliza asks how she can break the spell they are under.

They seem to have no answer for her, but they offer to carry her with them, so she spends the evening weaving a net for them to carry her in. The swan brothers fly through a terrible storm. They spend the evening on a rock in the sea only large enough to fit them, singing hymns for their comfort.

They fly on where Eliza sees mountains floating in the air and an enormous castle. She asks if that is where they are bound, but it is the "Fata Morgana," a land which no mortal can enter. Eventually they arrive at their true destination where her brothers put her to sleep in a cave, saying that they wish to hear what she dreams of.

She prays to God to dream of how to rescue her brothers and she dreams that a fairy comes to her out of the huge palace she saw who reminds her of the old woman she met on her journey. The fairy tells Eliza that she must break stinging nettles with her hands and feet until they can be used to weave eleven long-sleeved shirts for her brothers. Moreover she must not speak a word while she is completing the task or her brothers will die.

The next day Eliza swiftly begins her task and her brothers are alarmed to find she does not answer their questions, but when they see her work they understand it is for their sake. One of them weeps on the terrible blisters which the work has caused and they are healed by his tears.

She finishes one coat and begins to work on another when a huntsman's horn sounds. The king of the country she has entered, astonished at her beauty takes her with him to his palace with the intention of making her his bride. He kindly brings her flax along and allows her to finish her work for which she kisses his hand.

Meanwhile the archbishop disapproves of the match and tries to turn the king against the girl. When Eliza begins the seventh shirt she runs out of nettles and has to creep into the churchyard to find more. In the churchyard she must pass horrible ghouls who dig up the dead and eat them. Only the archbishop sees Eliza and interprets her actions as wicked ones.

While Eliza is getting the nettles for the last shirt, the king and the archbishop witness her journey into the churchyard. The king believing that Eliza in in league with the ghouls because she can pass through them without harm, condemns her to a cell. The evening before she is to be condemned, Eliza works hard to finish her last brother's coat. She is still working the next morning as she is drawn on a cart through the town past the jeering people who watch to see her burned as a witch.

Just as the people are preparing to destroy all of Eliza's work, the eleven swans alight on the cart and she throws their shirts over them. The youngest prince retains a swan's wing for one arm because she has not time to finish his shirt. Her task completed, Eliza declares her innocence, with her brothers supporting her. The wood that was to be used to burn her bursts into flower and the king marries Eliza that same day.

What do I think?
I think the greatest crimes here are committed not by the wicked stepmother or by the archbishop, but by the kings who are deceived by them. Any father who is willing to believe his sons are bad apples based on his new wife's words alone is pretty evil if you ask me. I don't even want to talk about throwing out your daughter because she doesn't look so great, although I guess after sending her away for 15 years it might actually only take a little bit of walnut juice to make her unrecognizable. Then again, Eliza's a bit of a lump for letting someone smear up her face and hair without doing anything about it.

It was surprising to find all of these appeals to God in the same story in which a fairy is finally the one to save the day by telling Eliza how to break the spell. Then again I've read poems like, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight and The Faerie Queene, which are full of references to Christianity, so I suppose I shouldn't have been so surprised.

The most unusual thing about fairy tales for me is perhaps the the motivations of various characters are pared down to almost nothing, so that it's hard to understand why the king allows his children to be punished and persecuted or why the other king allows his fiance to be dragged off to be burned by the suspicious populace. Surely they must have some kind of reason for this insane behaviour. As it is though, one doesn't really feel so good about Eliza's marriage at the end. Who would wish such a husband on a girl? I mean, her actions were certainly unusual enough, but in a world where ghouls are a commonplace, couldn't one infer the possibility of a magic spell?

The idea of a brother who retains one swan wing is very interesting. What kind of life would this brother now lead?

I think part of what attracts me to fairy tales is their inscrutability. Who knows why anyone does what they do in these stories. The reader is welcome to imagine what the story leaves out.

This business of the "Fata Morgana" puzzled me, so I did a little research on the friendly internet. Wikipedia led me to the idea of a mirage, a very specific phenomenon in which the weather can cause images in the distance to appear elongated, like fairy tale castles. The entry also mentioned a relationship with Morgan Le Fay, a shapeshifter, fairy and half-sister of King Arthur, who never appears in too pleasant a light in the Arthurian legends themselves.

It's fascinating to me how many words and phrases are derived from fairy tales which relate to illusion and delusion.

I found another page regarding the same phenomenon of mirages, which cites a story in which Morgan is said to have derived her powers from Merlin and used them to create a castle either under the sea or in the air, luring men to what seemed a safe harbour. Here Morgana Le Fay takes on the role of a siren. But how is this enchantress from Arthurian legend related to the story of Eliza and why does the notorious sorceress help the princess in this case rather than harming her? Another mystery. Now I shall have to hunt down some stories about Morgan in search of this castle of hers which I've never heard of before.

Molly Whuppie

2007-09-18T06:52:00.000-07:00

Painting
45x60 cm
watercolour
FINISHED

Inspiration

2007-09-04T06:27:00.000-07:00

This blog by the Endicott Studio for Mythic Arts was a great inspiration to me in finally starting to create the kind of art that I was interested in. The blog features a large collection of artists whose work is inspired by myth, folklore and fairy tales. Be warned that the page shows a lot of images at once, so if you have a slow internet connection it may be difficult to view it.

Credit Where It's Due

2007-09-04T06:18:00.000-07:00

Thanks to this Hackosphere Tutorial I can now add the little feature of hiding my huger entries to spare you all a migraine. This little change was very complicated, so I'm grateful for the help and have added a link on my sidebar as the author of the tutorial requested.

A Weekend of Fantasy Movies

2007-09-03T12:21:00.000-07:00

First some older movies, The Dark Crystal and The Labyrinth:

These are two movies I have surprisingly never seen before, given my penchant for fantasy. The one fantasy type movie I had ever watched as a kid was The Princess Bride and that became such a favourite that while catching up with a childhood friend, one of the main things she remembered about me was, "that movie you were always watching" and she didn't even see me that often, so I guess that put it into perspective for me.

The Dark Crystal
I liked this one better which is the opposite of what I expected. I was staggered by the sheer amount of physical work that must have gone into creating this movie. There were so many little creatures, even some that only appeared for a second or two. Somehow for me there’s something more thrilling about the creation of so many little models and puppets that actually appear in the film as is rather than being altered by computer effects. I know that’s unfair, because I am fairly sure that just as much work goes into making CG creatures, and I am sure a great deal of hand created models abound as well.

The characters were so delightful. I especially liked Aughra for her attitude. I liked that her wisdom was always handed out with a healthy amount of sass. I love the abrupt way she spoke, breaking off into sentence fragments. I also found it intriguing the way she was like one of the wise Grey Sisters, with her one eye which she could remove from her head.

Jen and Kira were so adorable. It's funny how the whole time I was watching this movie I was thinking that the themes and ideas I was seeing, well I recognized them from so many video games I have played.

Jen is exactly like every Final Fantasy hero who ever was: orphaned, reluctant, searching for his identity. I liked how he kept asking all of these questions in his head, he's looking at the crystal shard and wondering, “Now I've got the shard, but what do I do with it? What is it? Am I supposed to take it somewhere? What's so special about this shard?” That just reminded me a great deal of the sort of interior monologue of the fantasy hero in video games.

Kira and Jen are so innocent. They have that experience where they share their memories and some of those images are things which actual kids would be mortified to share, like where Jen's having a bath, but they're just both delighted with all of it. That's what I like best about them, they're just so delighted with everything they discover.

I have a special love for Kira's little pet, Fizzgig. My favourite is when she tells him he can't come along on the adventure into the Skekses Castle and he just opens his mouth and howls.

All in all I feel like I just read an awesome fantasy novel I'd never heard of before.

The Labyrinth
I was a little disappointed in this one. Look, before you skewer me, I couldn't help myself, I kept comparing it unfavourably with Alice in Wonderland, although Sarah clearly thought she was Cinderella. Sarah goes through the looking glass, wanders through a confusing world, wakes up and finds it was all a dream or was it? It was just too similar for me.

She was a lovely girl and I found her excess melodrama about everything amusing. She reminds me of Melanie from The Magic Toyshop, Melanie who can't stand her little sister and imagines herself as a gorgeous bride with an imaginary husband to ravage her.

The Goblin King was disturbingly interested in that young girl. It's intriguing how he somehow fit her romantic teenaged ideal while she was in that dream sequence. This shows she has unusual tastes to say the least. Didn't Jareth look wistful when she finally broke her way out of that dream? I thought that was quite well done. The scene in the ballroom is wonderful. I have to admit that even though Sarah was dressed up in all of her 80s finery, big hair and sleeves the size of her head, I could sympathize with the type of fantasy she was immersed in. What girl didn't want to be a princess in a ballgown at some stage in her life?

I find a strange thread through both of these movies, the villains aren't scary! The Goblin King mostly seems at a loss as to what he should do. I find the most sinister thing about him the fact that he seems to actually be in love with Sarah, as she imagined him being before the whole adventure started.

"Look, Sarah, what I'm offering you, your dreams . . . I ask for so little, just let me rule you and you can have everything you want . . . Just fear me, love me. Do as I say and I will be your slave."

That's very sinister in its way, but not the staple of the conventional villain. I must confess it was hard to fear for her brother when Jareth seemed to be so good with children. Why, the boy was happier with Jareth than with his sister. I get the impression it was all just a lure to bring her to him.

Anyway, as usual, the creatures stole the show. Ludo was my favourite, definitely. I liked the way the fantasy world turned Sarah's expectations on their head - the fairy that bit, for instance. Then it's interesting, the ending, it seems that Sarah imagined it all, but more interesting than that is the concept that she imagined it for a purpose. Somehow the fantasy of the Labyrinth at some times is just a pleasant dream she practices, in the park at the beginning of the movie in her medieval dress, but sometimes it is also the way she reminds herself that she doesn't actually want to get everything that she wants.

"I need you, Hoggle . . . I don't know why, but every now and again in my life, for no reason at all, I need you, all of you."

She says for no reason at all, but the reason seems to be that she takes for granted what she actually has, that her ego gets too large perhaps (I still can't believe she was so infuriated at a baby, well, I can in a way, but in a way I can't either). Then she needs to be reminded that the fantastic world she wants is a little bit sinister.

What disturbed me the most was all of the hands. She keeps getting touched by these strange creatures. It's very unnerving.

The Goblin King is the most interesting creature she imagines and also the most enigmatic. That's what's scary I guess, the very fact that she is interested in dreaming up a villain who is in love with her and who wants to rule her before he'll grant her any wishes. That's the part I liked about it all, the relationship between those two. Jareth wants the power, but that's probably because he is essentially powerless before Sarah since she invented him.

Then I watched Pan’s Labyrinth.

Pan’s Labyrinth
I have to say I am in love with this movie. I know that’s disturbing given the frightening and violent nature of the tale it tells. It’s out of character for me in a way. This movie could almost be classified as horror, I think, but I liked it. This isn’t to say I didn’t cringe away from the violent scenes, because I will always do that, but the fantastic horror was wonderful. It’s the same inexplicable wonder I have in the horrifying fairy tales that have captured my attention, stories like Mr. Fox, for example. For some reason, rather than filling me with fear, these stories fill me with a gruesome wonder.

Therefore, this movie was perfect for me, a perfect new fairy tale, in the style of the classic ones I am familiar with. The hideous toad, the monstrous pale creature who ate children (that pile of shoes, how deliciously terrible!), the twisted pale-eyed faun, all of these were the most fascinating characters for me. The opening fairy tale which the rest of the story begins to mirror was marvellous as well. It was interesting to me for the way it evoked the tale of Persephone or Proserpine.

The elements of the real world and the fairy tale world entangled one another beautifully. The piece of chalk with which the little girl could draw doors into other rooms, the labyrinth she disappeared into, the stick insect that was a faerie when it chose to be, all of these things were wonderful details for the ways in which they could easily be explained away as the products of a child’s imagination and as the sorts of strange pursuits a particularly imaginative child would adopt.

I don’t know what my hypothesis is about the whole question of what was true and what false. I am not sure I am prepared to believe that all of that was imagined. The true terror for me was just this, the whole time the little girl was undergoing those trials to enter the Underworld as a princess, I kept wondering, what sort of world would she find herself ruling over. That eyeless, skinless Pale Man, didn’t he live below the ground? Oh yes, didn’t he? For me that possibility still exists after the little girl imagines herself into the beautiful throne room, that behind that beautiful facade lie the same horrible creatures she encountered during her trials.

The interweaving of such a horrible story unfolding in ‘reality’ (the conclusion of a civil war, the fates of rebels orchestrated by a vicious setpfather)with such a gruesome and terrible fantasy world was perfect and tragic. Even when the little girl enters her world of fantasy, whether imagined by her or not, she cannot escape the brutality of life. When the girl’s mother tells her that she can’t continue living in happy fairy tales, one has the desire to laugh. This little girl is not escaping to a wonderful and perfect fantasy world, she is escaping to a world of true fairy tales, full of the violent twists and turns which these stories typically contain.

The fairy tale tropes in the movie were brilliant as well. The little girl can’t resist eating grapes, despite the warnings of the little faeries, despite the awful monster assembling itself behind her. She has to complete fantastic deeds before getting her reward, spurred on by a creature of questionable morality.

And speaking of my other obsessions, what remarkable heroines were Ofelia and Mercedes. They were both such brave and heroic figures. I love the moment when Ofelia reveals that she knows Mercedes’ secret, but she won’t tell it.

I also liked the way in which stories besides fairy tales were also important. The story of Capitan Vidal’s father’s watch, for instance, the story which he wants to pass down to his son. It is telling how the moment of Vidal’s true defeat clearly comes when Mercedes denies him that right and tells him that his son will never know his name. Fairy tale justice is at work as well.

Molly Whuppie

2007-08-29T11:32:00.000-07:00

This is another story that I think of immediately when I think of my favourite fairy tale heroines. Molly Whuppie is not the kind of girl anyone can make into a victim. Despite the many negative things that happen to her, she always manages to end up victorious. Here she's stolen the giant's sword and has escaped across the bridge of one hair. I like her bravery the most.

There is a version of the story that I have read where rather than marrying the king's son immediately, Molly leaves a note saying that she will be back when she is ready to settle down, but for now she is going off on adventures of her own. I think that ending suits her character.

I'm going to have some sheep back there beside the giant for scale. I hope that works out to convey his size and that he doesn't end up entirely dwarfing the cliff he's standing on to the point of absurdity.

The Painting
45x60 cm
watercolour
UNFINISHED

Faerie

2007-08-29T06:29:00.000-07:00

My littlest sister wanted a painting of a faerie. I rather think she meant one of the small, cute winged types, but I hope she isn't too disappointed with this one. I am much more fond myself of the types of faeries found in tales like Thomas the Rhymer. This is a faerie who looks a great deal like a person, only more beautiful and strange. I don't think I've quite achieved what I am attempting, just as I wasn't completely pleased with the faerie in my Tam Lin painting. Maybe something a little more otherworldly is called for. I'll have to work on it.

Painting
23x30.5cm
watercolour
FINISHED

The Snow Queen

2007-08-16T08:02:00.000-07:00

I could barely sleep last night because I really wanted to fix this.

Better? Worse? What do you think? I think I am finished now . . . I think.

The Snow Queen

2007-08-15T08:47:00.000-07:00

The boyfriend says that his shoulders are too narrow. He's right. Back to the drawing board!

The Snow Queen

2007-08-03T10:56:00.000-07:00

The Story
This is the annotated version of the Snow Queen and it is still not a short tale. Now, this image is more based on the story rather than taken directly from it. I am not even sure if I've ever heard the whole story, which is something I will have to work on finding a version of, but I did see a movie adaptation or two.

In my mind, Kay turns into ice literally and metaphorically, not just his heart. But the fact of Gerda disenchanting him is the same. She will be there on his right in that blank space, kissing him on the cheek.

I highly enjoy the idea of a woman coming to rescue a man. The Snow Queen herself was probably always what enchanted me about this tale, cold and beautiful and magnificent, but she's not here in the palace, just this ice angel in the background.

The ice palace comes from Switzerland, by the way. It's quite interesting: Jungfraujoch Ice Palace. It's cut into a glacier.

The Painting
45x60 cm
watercolour
UNFINISHED

I'm really enjoying all the textures of the ice and I look forward to adding in Gerda who will be wearing a big furry red coat and will contrast strongly with all of the iciness.

The Wild Swans

2007-08-03T09:59:00.001-07:00

The Story
The Wild Swans is the version of this story that I remember best. In this story a young girl sacrifices a great deal in order to save her brothers from being enchanted as swans.

This story fits in well with my discussion of hysteria as, in it, the girl takes a vow of silence and is forced to weave clothing for her brothers out of stinging nettles. Because of her unusual behaviour the girl is persecuted and nearly burned as a witch.

There are many stories in which women, while they do behave nobly in the end, do a lot of foolish things to start with. That's the way many fairy tales work anyway. One starts off behaving foolishly and learns a lesson. I like this story because the girl behaves so selflessly throughout.

The Painting
45x60 cm
watercolour
UNFINISHED

The amount of figures in this painting is currently defeating me. I've started something new to try to refresh my interest.

Tam Lin

2007-08-03T09:43:00.000-07:00

The Story
I really enjoy the ballad of Tam Lin.

My favourite thing about the story is probably the bravery and courage of the heroine, Janet (her name varies in different versions). I like the way that she is willing to risk the displeasure of the faerie folk to claim her lover. I like that she trusts him enough to be able to hold on to him while he changes from a serpent to a lion to a flaming hot brand.

But I like that metaphor for love. That's what you have to do, have the faith to hang on tight to the person you love as they change (although not as drastically as in the tale, certainly!) I've always been the most interested in the fairy tales where women are able to be strong and to do brave deeds for love. That's why I like this story and why I wanted to paint this scene.

The Painting
45x60 cm
watercolour
FINISHED

Fairy Tales

2007-08-03T08:03:00.000-07:00

I'd like to share with you where I get my fairy tale fix: SurLaLune.

They have Ebooks along with all of the more familiar favourites. There are also recommendations for novels that provide modern interpretations of each fairy tale and links to beautiful artwork for each story. It's a wonderful site.

And Away She Flew

2007-08-03T04:19:00.000-07:00

out of the forests of doubt and into a new atmosphere.