The Rhyne Maidens

No it is not a spelling mistake, I am still pursuing some of the lesser-known creatures of the Westcountry, and we are still down on the Somerset Levels (where yesterday I showed you the Pollarded Dryads). The rhynes are the drainage channels of the Levels. They are the reason why many of the fields have no fences around them: they have their own personal moats instead. When I first came to Somerset I was amazed to see gates standing on the edge of a field with no fence to either side: just a gate, across the entry which was the…

Pollarded Dryads, and the Secret to Eternal Youth

How many limbs would you sacrifice for eternal youth? None? not even a few fingers, some little toes? Very wise, this only works with trees, but I bet some out there would be prepared to donate a digit or two… I am pondering some of our local Westcountry creatures – the ones you don’t usually see. The rhyne mermaids, ditch dragons, hedge trolls – more investigation is needed. However, one collection of creatures that I am sure are out there are the Pollarded Dryads. Dryads of course are tree spirits. And willows, like all trees, must have their dryads –…

“Art can never exist without naked beauty displayed”

I have finished the monster spelling undertaking! If you missed the first stages and explanation, the quote is from William Blake, and the work in progress pictures are here: ‘Biting off more words than I can spell’ ‘Still chewing over the words’ So, I re-did the whole thing, swapping the dip-pen and Indian Ink for a plain old Biro. Not as black, not as ‘proper’ but a far nicer, more sensitive drawing tool to work with… and more disaster-proof, too! Here are the pictures, rather a lot of them: the words are about 35 inches wide, so there is a…

Still chewing over the words…

A follow on from yesterday’s ‘Biting off more words that I can spell‘ – I finally got out my Indian ink and drawing pens and drew the Spelling People. My rationale for using Indian ink is that it is very, very black and I needed something that would dominate the vast expanse of white paper. Previous Spelling Animals have been quite delicately done, in pencil and watercolour, but since this picture is going to be submitted to a drawing exhibition I wanted to leave out the watercolour. So, bring on the Indian Ink. The trouble is now I have done…

Biting off more words than I can spell…

I am attempting a monumental spelling picture! This is not a commission, I have it in mind to submit it to an exhibition. I wanted to spell with people (drawings of: I do not know that many people that flexible). My first thought was it would be fun do spell, say ‘Frantic’ with relaxed sleepy people, and ‘Serene’ with panicky people, but this failed because by the time the people are constrained to spell letters, there is very little scope left for showing facial expressions or emotional body language. So I cast about for a quote involving nudity, and came…

A composition of glorious non-sequiturs

Think of three unrelated things: a noun, an adjective, and a verb… Octopus Steampunk Relax Can I please paint the word ‘Relax’ in steampunk octopi? Ok, no problem. The result is arguably a little more ‘Victorian Farce’ than proper ‘Steampunk’, but I thought a lot of tiny steampunk details would probably get lost, or worse, make the word unreadable. Squint in a drunken way, preferably from your lovely warm bath, glass of wine in hand, and they clearly say ‘Relax’…

“Theatre of the Soul” – an exhibition at Bridport Arts Centre

I’ve been invited to take part in an exhibition in Bridport Arts Centre, 17th Jan – 28th Feb. Here is the poster, with my ‘Murder of Crows’ painting a part of it. I really like the images by the other artists, this promises to be a fascinating show! For more details see my exhibitions page: https://nancyfarmer.wordpress.com/future-exhibitions/

Happy New Year!

My your demons of 2015 be no more serious than these ones 🙂 Nancy xxx