New paintings and regular art updates.
I drew this in the 1980s I have it on the stairs and it’s badly faded. I might use filters to try and restore how it looks? It’s sad when you have created something but the sun destroys it over time. I don’t know if you can buy ink that is resistant to sunlight? Maybe?
My college thesis was on Pre Christian Celtic art. I have continued to love the knotwork designs they created. I was interested how the Celts moved westwards across Europe and into the British Isles. Their art was stunning. Various archaeological discoveries of intricate gold and bronze artefacts showed the sophistication of their culture. A massive horde of treasure was found at Sutton Hoo and historical artefacts were found in Halstatt in Austria? I’m sorry it’s 40 years since I wrote it and memory fades.
I continued to draw celtic knotwork, but this style of art needs practice and I haven’t done much of it recently.
I have been interested in Celtic Art for a long time. I wrote my thesis on pre Christian Celtic art and I think these were drawn a while after that. I know they were drawn in the early 1990s as I found a drawing of one of my old cats in the book.
Drawing knotwork is not easy, the trouble is getting the pattern right. Weaving the lines is quite difficult and I think here I was practicing the positions of each line. There are other circular patterns where two or three parts interlink. If I remember rightly these can be used on brooches and sheild bosses.
I still try and do this kind of pattern occasionally, for example a painting of a snake recently which had this kind of feel. I also like the animals that are used as terminals to the knots.
Recently a hoard of jewellery, armoury and gold peices were found in Staffordshire. This was a Saxon Hoard but you can still see the influence of knotwork in the peices. I want to create something like the figure of a woman (see top of page ) as a painting.
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It started out as a series of splodges. I was not sure what it would turn into. I am interested in Celtic knotwork and also Saxon metalwork. The Staffordshire hoard of Saxon gold was found nearby a couple of years ago and there are many animals and monsters found in that kind of art and craft work.
Suddenly the idea of a snake popped into my mind so I added scales and a head to the pattern, but why would it be there, what was the reason behind it. I remember being intrigued by Snakes and Ladders when I was little. I always landed on a snake and slither down to the foot of the board .
I decided to add the ladder, but the background was too dark. I was modelling the 3 dimensions of the snake with dark and light paint but the snake was merging into the background. What to do!? I tried a green, but felt that was not the right colour. …why not a bold red? I had got a bottle of glittery deep red and I tried that. Bingo I’m pleased with the result.
That’s how you paint a Snake and Ladder. ….
Mallaband-Brown