Friday, April 20, 2012

Sweet Bells

I've returned to my Gartan Mother's Lullaby project,  illustrating each line of the 110-year-old Irish tune.  When I started, I imagined making only 6 or 7 paintings, to go with two stanzas. Putting these together in a mock-up book, I realized it was too little.  I turned to the last stanza of the song, which, for me, is out of character with the first part, having a more Christian cast, rather than a mystical pagan feel.  The last stanza is:

"Faintly sweet doth the chapel bell ring o'er the valley dim,
Tearmann's peasant voices swell, in fragrant evening hymn.
A leanbhan-o, the low bell rings my little lamb to rest
And angel-dreams, till morning sings its music in your breast."

See what I mean? The first part of the song refers to Irish fairies and the Green Man, and this part is about chapels, hymns, and angels.  But it is all written by one person as one song. I decided to attempt a set of paintings for this last part, and unify it with the first two stanzas through the art.  The fairies and the angels co-exist.  How modern of me.

Anyway, here's the painting for the first line. Find the fairies!


Sweet Bells.  11x14 watercolor.  NFS.

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