Dragons!

I was able to go to Kidwelly Castle recently where they had the dragons which have been at Caerphilly Castle for a while. I've been wanting to see them for ages and had a lovely sunny day on which to finally get there. I have to show you the photos!

They were near one of the towers, the mother protruding from the ground and the babies in their nest.

Dad Dewi, who is red, has stayed at home in Caerphilly Castle while mum Dwynwen and the twin dragonlets are on tour around Wales.

They were all made by Cardiff based props company Wild Creations. The adults keep still, but the babies are animatronic and move their heads, eyes and wings. You can also hear a roaring sound from them. I love the way they look quite realistic, with the detail of their scales and mottled colouring.

Here's a close up of Dwynwen:

And one of the babies:

While I was there, I also took photos of the castle itself.

Here's the tower by the dragons:

This is the view from the very top of one of the towers (yes, I was very brave! 😉😊) You can see the river Gwendraeth just behind the castle in the centre of the picture and the landscape beyond.

There's a lot of history surrounding this place. Gwenllian, a Welsh princess, daughter of the king of Gwynedd and wife of the ruler of Deheubarth, led a battle against the Normans in the fields just to the other side of the castle while her husband was in North Wales gathering men to fight. The Normans moved earlier than expected, so Gwenllian and her sons went to face them. This was before the castle was built in stone as it now is. Sadly, Gwenllian lost the fight and was killed in the fields. That area is known as Maes Gwenllian (Gwenllian's field).

Although I've been to Kidwelly before, it was well worth the second visit to see the dragons. I've waited to see them for a long time and it was even better to do it now the babies have arrived. It's all part of the Year of Legends promoting Wales's history, mythology and tourism.

You can find out more about the dragons by clicking here:

http://www.caerphillyobserver.co.uk/news/964692/baby-dragons-hatch-at-caerphilly-castle/


We've had quite a few rainy days recently, but on a rare sunny day, I took this photo of a hoverfly on a dahlia:

I think at some point, this photo may make it into a piece of art.

Happy St David's Day!

Happy St David’s Day! Dydd Gwyl Dewi Hapus!

Here are some photos to celebrate my national patron saint’s day today. Beautiful daffodils – the symbol of Wales - with droplets on their petals and leaves. I love droplets on things, I think they look so gorgeous like little jewels shimmering in the light.

I wondered if you might like to know a bit about Saint David (Dewi Sant in Welsh).

He was born around 5oo AD but no one is sure exactly when. It is said that an angel foretold his birth to Saint Patrick 30 years before. His mother was Saint Non, daughter of a Chieftain and his father was the son of a king. David was born on a clifftop in Pembrokeshire during a storm and apparently you can still see the handprints of Non on a rock. At David’s birth a bolt of lightning split the rock. Non later became a nun and near the site of David’s birth are the ruins of St Non’s Chapel. A new chapel has been built nearby and there is also St Non’s well which is said to have healing properties.

Stained Glass Window of St David.

(Artist unknown.)

Saint David was taught by Saint Paulinus in Carmarthenshire. He became a teacher and preacher, a bishop and later an archbishop, founding several monasteries and churches in Wales. A monastery he founded in the Glyn Rhosyn valley became St David’s Cathedral. He was at the centre of the Welsh Church in the 6^th century and went on pilgrimages to Jerusalem and Rome.

Saint David’s symbol is a dove and he is also patron saint of vegetarians and vegans. I’m a vegetarian so he’s my patron saint twice over. This is due to the fact that he only drank water and ate only bread, vegetables and herbs. He also taught his followers not to eat meat or drink beer and as well as that, the monks had to pull their own ploughs instead of using animals. He lived simply and encouraged monks to spend their evenings in prayer, reading and writing. Apparently though, some monks were not happy with the austere life he insisted on and they tried to poison him. Saint Scuthyn knew about this and travelled from Ireland on the back of a sea monster to warn him. (I’d love to have seen that!) David blessed the bread he was about to eat, ate it and was all right.

The most famous miracle associated with Saint David was when he was preaching in Llanddewi Brefi. Such a large crowd had gathered that not everyone could hear him. In order for him to be heard and seen, the ground rose underneath him forming a small hill. As the late historian John Davies commented, it was quite an unnecessary miracle considering how many hills there are in Wales!

In the late 11^th century, a book called Buchedd Dewi (Life of St David) was written by a man called Rhygyfarch. It contains the traditional tales that we now have about St David and is said to have been taken from documents discovered in the archives of the cathedral, though it is believed to be more legend than truth.

Saint David is said to have lived for 100 years. He died on 1^st March and it is also said that the monastery was ‘filled with angels as Christ received his soul.’ His last sermon, according to Rhygyfarch, contained the words,

‘Do the little things that you have seen me do and heard about.’

‘Do the little things’ (‘Gwnewch y pethau bychain’ in Welsh) is well known in Wales and is about simplicity in life.

David was buried at St David’s Cathedral in St David’s, Pembrokeshire – the smallest city in Britain. It was, and still is, a popular place for pilgrims and visitors. They say that four journeys to St David’s is equal to one pilgrimage to Jerusalem and two to Rome. (If that’s the case, I’ve been to Jerusalem at least once and to Rome several times considering the number of trips I’ve taken to St David’s.)

His shrine resides inside the cathedral, containing relics that are meant to be his bones. It was restored and re-dedicated in 2012 with five icons painted by Sarah Crisp. They were made with egg tempera and gesso and are displayed in niches around the shrine. St David is in the centre, St Patrick to the left, St Andrew to the right and at the back are St Non and St Justinian, a contemporary of St David.

St David by Sarah Crisp.

St David’s Day has been a festival since the 18^th century, though sadly still not a holiday, but we love celebrating it. An Eisteddfod is usually held in many schools with competitions for poetry, singing etc. and lots of girls wear traditional Welsh costume consisting of a tall black hat, shawl, pinafore and red skirt. Many of us wear daffodils pinned to our chests. Men sometimes wear leeks though – the other symbol of Wales – and our flag with the red dragon will be flying. We may also eat lots of Welsh cakes!

You can find more about St David and the Cathedral by clicking stdavidscathedral.org.uk

I hope you’ve found some of this interesting. If not, I hope you’ve liked the photos. Whether you’re Welsh or not, have a lovely day.      

Marianne North

You may remember that in a post last year I mentioned artist Marianne North because I’d seen a programme about her. Well, due to that I became interested in her and I’ve done some research on her.

Marianne North was born in October 1830 and was the eldest daughter of Frederick North, a Liberal MP for Hastings, and Janet North, daughter of Sir John Marjoribanks MP.

Marianne North

She originally trained as a vocalist but her voice failed and she turned to painting. After her mother died in 1855 Marianne travelled with her father to Syria and along the Nile in Egypt.

After her father’s death in 1869, Marianne, now aged nearly 40, continued travelling with the intention of painting the flowers, landscapes, animals and birds she found. She had a true passion for recording the things she saw, some of which was new to science and as she painted with scientific accuracy, the viewer could see exactly what the plant looked like. She said:

‘I had long dreamed of going to some tropical country to paint its peculiar vegetation on the spot in natural abundant luxuriance.’

Marianne North

Marianne North

That’s just what she did. Over the years Marianne travelled to Sicily, Canada, the United States, Jamaica, Brazil, Tenerife, Japan, Borneo, Java, Ceylon and India. After encouragement from Charles Darwin, she also visited Australia and New Zealand.

Marianne North

Marianne North

Marianne travelled through rough landscapes and through jungle, staying in huts, living there until she had recorded everything she wanted to. She lived in India for 18 months and visited many areas all over the world which were unknown to a lot of Europeans. She also travelled unaccompanied, something very unusual for a Victorian woman.

Marianne North

During 18 years of travel, Marianne created 832 paintings, brightly coloured and valuable to science and art. She discovered new species and due to this, Marianne had one genus named after her: Northia, and four species: Areca northiana, Crinum northianum, Kniphofia northiana and Nepenthes northiana.

Marianne North

Marianne North

Marianne had a gallery built in Kew Gardens. It was designed by James Ferguson but she paid for it herself and personally arranged all the pictures inside, row upon row, all tightly packed together. The gallery opened in 1882.

Marianne North

Due to failing health, Marianne retired to Gloucestershire and she died in 1890.

Marianne North was very adventurous for the time that she lived in, but she was well connected and had support from the people she knew. Many Victorian women didn’t have the means or the freedom to do something similar even if they wanted to. However, what Marianne did was a great achievement. Her work is beautiful, colourful and detailed and she had a great determination and dedication to her aim. It allowed people who might never travel to the countries she visited to see the plants and landscapes of exotic lands. She was obviously a strong woman and deserves to be remembered more than she is, alongside the male explorers of the same era.

Influences no.5~Art Nouveau

Another of my influences is Art Nouveau. I really love the flowing nature of the forms, the elegant lines and curves, the way flowers and wings are incorporated into the designs and the whole mystical, almost mythical feel to the whole thing.

Tiffany

The Art Nouveau movement began in 1890 with artists and designers in Paris, Brussels and London. Each place had its own interpretation of the ideas and themes behind it, the Austrian name being the Secession, Germany referring to it as Jugendstil and there was also the Glasgow School. The design differed even further when designers in Italy, Spain, Russia and the USA became involved.

Tiffany

The movement lasted until the First World War but had a revival in the 1960s when the look became popular again with the event of the Counter Culture.

Alphonse Mucha

Some of the most prominent examples of the design are Tiffany Glass, book designs by Aubrey Beardsley and posters by Alphonse Mucha.

There are also the textile and furniture designs by Charles Rennie Mackintosh and his wife Margaret Macdonald Mackintosh, and, among the others who followed the style was Arthur Rackham

Charles Rennie Mackintosh

The sinuous lines of Art Nouveau were based on forms in the natural world, one of the iconic symbols being the 'whiplash' line which curls back on itself and seems alive, wanting to 'whip' off the design. According to the Victoria and Albert Museum it is a metaphor; it
    'displays in graphic form the radical drive to break away from the constraints of tradition.' 

Tiffany

This was one of the main ideas behind the Art Nouveau movement: to do away with tradition, as up until then, art had been dominated by historical influences. The artists and designers were influenced by medieval art and also by Celtic art with its intertwining lines, but they wanted to make it modern. Instead of producing work with the traditional, old fashioned styles, they wanted to be original and innovative, taking their influences and making them new with modern looks.

Alphonse Mucha

As Art Nouveau was the movement which straddled the turn of the century, with the old and new combining as new technologies and industries came about, it combined those ideas of old and new, tradition and modernism, playing with the tension that combination created.

Margaret Macdonald Mackintosh

Aubrey Beardsley

Until the advent of Art Nouveau, art had been seen as superior to craft but the designers wanted to challenge this and bring them to an equal level. Alongside this, one of their principles was that the product should be well crafted and not produced on an industrial level. They wanted beautiful, individual items. Craft was seen as superior to industrial production - something we are finding out again in the 21st Century with the rise of handmade products and their value against mass produced items which can easily be discarded to add to the environmental problems we face.

Alphonse Mucha

Art Nouveau spread quickly through Europe and was applied to a number of different disciplines including architecture, jewellery, furniture, textiles, posters, book covers, glass and ceramics.

Aubrey Beardsley

Another influence of Art Nouveau was the Pre-Raphaelites who shared their love and portrayal of nature. Flowers were one of the main features of the designs, along with tendrils, leaves, wings, feathers and seedpods. However, geometric shapes were used alongside them providing a contrast, particularly in the work of Charles Rennie Mackintosh.

Women were a prominent feature of Art Nouveau as well, portrayed in a stylised way rather than natural, but they seem to be surrounded by, if not part of, nature, sometimes even the personification of the seasons. This prominence of the natural world seems to be a portrayal of our relationship with and place in nature, an exploration of where we fit in: part of it or have we separated ourselves? Either way, nature was brought indoors with the furniture and decorative objects which the designers and craftsmen made. Perhaps they were trying to influence people to see the beauty in nature again, to reconnect with it after the effects of the Industrial Revolution.

Privat Livemont

Symbolism was another thing the artist and designers incorporated into their work and another theme they shared with the Pre-Raphaelites. The Victorian era was obsessed by all things spiritual and mystical of course and symbols were combined with art to portray mythical or spiritual themes, which the artist wanted the viewer to understand. For example, poppies, lilies and roses were symbols of love and death. The art was meant to say something, not to just be an object of beauty to be looked at and nothing else. 

Victor Horta

When the Art Nouveau movement ended with the First World War, the Modernist ideas within it carried on but within other movements which took its place. Art Deco and the Bauhaus were two of the artistic styles which came in its wake and its influence is still felt today as many look to it for inspiration, so Art Nouveau is still has a strong identity.

You can find more on Art Nouveau by clicking these links: The Art Story 
                                                                                V&A 
                                                                                The Tate

There's also much more on Art Nouveau in this interesting article on Artsy


 

Influences no. 3 ~ the Pre~Raphaelites

Another of the influences on my work is the art of the Pre~Raphaelite Brotherhood. I just love their paintings.I love the colours, the symbology, linking back to what I was saying about the symbology of flowers in my post http://rustyandboots.blogspot.co.uk/2016/05/maybeltane-and-herald-of-spring.html

The themes they used included medieval culture, Arthurian legend and the works of poets such as Keats, Shelley, Dante and Thackery and the plays of Shakespeare, as in the painting below, Ferdinand Lured by Ariel, 1849, John Everett Millais. I also have an interest in medieval things, Arthurian legend and anything mythical, so their work is perfect for me. 

Ferdinand Lured by Ariel, 1849, John Everett Millais

The Pre~Raphaelite Brotherhood (PRB) was founded in 1848. Its three original members were Dante Gabriel Rossetti, William Holman Hunt and John Everett Millais. They had an intense dislike of the art that was fashionable at the time, the way it was taught at the Royal Academy. It had to be dark in tone and portray an image of the ideal and the PRB thought the subject matter was too grand and trivial. They wanted to revolt against that and go back to the kind of art that was done before the Renaissance, bringing in brighter colours, painting what was in front of them rather than an imagined ideal image, observing nature, painting it accurately and portraying simple subjects with seriousness and sincerity.

Autumn Leaves, 1856, John Everett Millais

This was their philosophy, as recorded by William Michael Rossetti:

1. To have genuine ideas to express;
2. To study nature attentively, so as to know how to express them;
3. To sympathise with what is direct and serious and heartfelt in previous art,  to the exclusion of what is conventional and self-parading and learned by rote;
4. And most indispensable of all, to produce thoroughly good pictures and statues.

 The PRB was a secret society to begin with, wanting to create works of art which could change minds and inspire people. Their art was all about a truthfulness to nature; they painted outside to accurately reflect the trees, flowers and landscape as they were and tackled the social problems of the time, something other artists were ignoring.

Attention to detail was an important thing for them, as John Ruskin wrote:

"go to nature in all singleness of heart, rejecting nothing, selecting nothing and scorning nothing."

 

Ophelia, 1851-52, John Everett Millais

One of the most popular Pre~Raphaelite works is Ophelia by John Everett Millais (above) although other versions of Ophelia have been painted by Arthur Hughes in 1852 and John William Waterhouse in 1894. This of course, is from Hamlet by Shakespeare, portraying Ophelia drowning after Hamlet has killed her father. Again, everything in the painting is symbolic; the flowers all either mentioned in the play or chosen for their meaning, for example, the weeping willow = forsaken love; the nettles = pain; the daisies = innocence; the roses = youth, love and beauty; the poppy = sleep, death, remembrance and the forgetmenots are obvious. 

The bank and flowers around it were painted by a river in Ewell. Ophelia was painted from a model, Lizzie Siddal, in a bath. From what I remember when I was studying art in collage, the water in the bath was warm to begin with, but chilled after a while, so Lizzie Siddal was laying there freezing and caught a cold. She married Dante Gabriel Rossetti in 1860 but unfortunately died in 1862 due to an overdose of laudanum. 

 

Midsummer Eve, c.1908, Edward Robert Hughes

The art of the PRB was not an immediate success. It went against everything the Royal Academy taught and people hated it. However, the leading art critic John Ruskin was persuaded to intervene and wrote two letters to The Times giving his support to the Pre~Raphaelites. After that (surprise, surprise) the art world and the public accepted the Pre~Raphaelite art and it went from strength to strength, becoming a huge part of Victorian culture (which just shows that those in 'authority' aren't always right, if someone doesn't like your art, someone else will and sometimes what's 'fashionable' can hinge on the opinion of just one person).

 

The Knight of the Sun, 1860, Arthur Hughes

The PRB gained a huge following with many artists taking on their ideas and ethics and they changed art forever, but due to the members beginning to go in different directions, the Brotherhood broke up. There was a second phase of Pre~Raphaelitism with their followers though, the original members meeting new artists and influencing them, joining with them to go down a new route using similar principles. 

 

Flaming June, c.1895, Frederic, Lord Leighton

The Pre~Raphaelites influenced much of the art that came after them and although their work went out of fashion after the First World War due to the beautiful images being so opposite to the realities of war and the hardships people faced at that time, it had a revival in the 1960s. I'm so glad it did.

 

The Lady of Chalot, 1888, John William Waterhouse

Night, c.1880-85, Edward Robert Hughes

One of my absolute favourite paintings is Mariana, painted by John Everett Millais in 1851 (below). I love the deep colours, the red of her stool and in the window, the deep midnight blue of her dress, then the candle hanging up on the right, a point of light surrounded by shadow, the browning leaves scattered around.

 

Mariana, 1851, John Everett Millais

It was inspired by the poem Mariana by Tennyson, which in turn was inspired by the character Mariana in Shakespeare's Measure for Measure. Her dowry was lost in a shipwreck and she was rejected by her fiance Angelo. She still loves him and longs to be with him but the withered leaves suggest time is moving on and she is getting older. She is separated from the world outside and alone in her house. It is beautiful in its sense of melancholy and wistfulness.

When I discovered the Pre~Raphaelites, the colour, imagery and subjects were like a revelation, as all I'd seen before were the Renaissance type art works and, to be honest, they seemed a little dull and high-brow at the time. The Pre~Raphaelites depicted things I had an interest in and created works that I could look at for ages. I like their rebellious nature ~ making the art they wanted to create, not what those in 'authority' said they should be doing. They created their own path and that, for me, is a hugely inspiring thing.


You can see more about the Pre~Raphaelites at: The Tate , victorianweb.org , preraphaelitesisterhood.com
 

May/Beltane and the Herald of Spring

May is here already. Where has this year gone? One minute we're eating Easter eggs, the next we're dancing round maypoles. No, I don't really do that. :o)

May day is traditionally a celebration of spring and the coming summer, known as Calan Mai in Welsh. It is also called Beltane, a name which goes back thousands of years. The native British Celts celebrated the beginning of summer with bonfires symbolising the sun and its growing strength. There were various rituals involved, including one where they would build two fires and drive their animals between them in a cleansing ritual. They saw fire as a purifier.

So, to celebrate this time of year, here are some of my photos and drawings of tulips, as tulips are the first flowers, along with daffodils, to appear. This has lead to them being called the Heralds of Spring. Anyone who saw my Twitter posts this time last year might remember that I had a bit of an obsession with the tulips growing in my garden. :o)

I'd planted loads of bulbs the previous year, so it was wonderful to see them springing up and providing lots of colour along with pollen for bees. Here is one with raindrops on it. I don't know what it is about droplets on flowers but I think they look beautiful.

 

When I was a child, I used to trail behind my parents at garden centres saying, "Can we go now?" My mother would reply with "In a minute." That minute seemed to stretch out for ages.  :o)
It was one quite a boring thing for me at the time, though having said that, I did enjoy helping my parents in the garden when they were planting flowers. Now, I actually like going to garden centres to see all the plants on display and choose ones I like, particularly if they're good for bees and butterflies.

 

 

I love these tulips with the red streaks. They remind me of raspberry ripple ice cream.  :o)

There is a lot of symbolism with flowers. Tulips mean perfect love, fame, eternal life, opportunity, adjustment, advancement and aspiration. As they grow back every year, they are symbolic of resurrection and determination and they also represent attainment of spiritual awareness.

The colours of tulips vary their meaning, for example, red means love; pink means affection; yellow: cheerful thoughts or unrequited love, depending on where you look. Purple is symbolic of royalty; cream means 'I will love you forever'; white is symbolic of heaven and purity. The variegated ones are meant to mean 'You have beautiful eyes'.

You can find more on flower meanings by clicking HERE, HERE and HERE 

My mother bought some cream tulips to put in a vase a while ago and I ended up drawing them. I think the lovely thing about them is that they're not fussy, they have a simple shape and elegant form that let the colour do the talking.

I've begun painting tulips too. This is my first test painting.

 

I'm really interested in the symbolic nature of flowers because it brings more meaning to the art work they're in. It's not just a flower or plant that's represented, it's an emotion or message. The Pre~Raphaelites used symbolism in their paintings, such as the ivy in the image below, which adds to the story they were telling in each picture, showing the situation of the figures involved. Ivy is symbolic of the eternal. 

 

 'April Love' 1855~56 by Arthur Hughes

May this season be a good one for you.