Celtic Imaginings

The Richards Family circa early 1900's, the last Welsh speakers in my family. Knowing this makes me feel sad and angry. Hearing stories of their struggles, hard working and still living in poverty makes me question what has changed for the working classes 100 years on? Also, I felt that my ancestors would have something of value to share about living simply and more closely with nature.

I imagined that this would be similar to the interior of a miner's cottage they would have lived in. Imagining this made me feel closer to them, as I have no living relatives who could tell me or provide images.

I considered what may have been important to them and sitting at the table and chatting with them. I want to consider objects on a table and their symbolism as a way of communicating deeper cultural and spiritual messages.

I am interested in the plant knowledge that they would have had and how much of that has been lost in the march toward modernity. I feel an urgency to return to a simpler way of living and that my ancestors were living simply and recognised how dependent on each other and the earth we are.

I have dressed as a victorian scullery maid here wearing a Celtic Stone mask - which as I type seems like a very peculiar thing to do! In my pracitice so far I seem to have a desire to 'dress up' as a form of narrative. My understanding of my personal history so far is that my ancestors have always been in servitude to the Ruling Class.

Seemingly ordinary cooking objects like this 'cauldron' could have major significance in older cultures. In the story of 'Ceridwen's Cauldron' Gwyion develops the ability to transform and shape shift into various creatures after dipping his finger into the caludron and putting it into his mouth to stop the burning.

I began playing with collaged objects in an interior and the cut out of the maid. I suppose I was trying to create 'my ancestor' in their setting conveying their message.

I am inspired by Shani Rhys James interiors which seem dark and foreboding.

Chiaroscuro - leading on from a foreboding interior, I want to investigate the contrast between light and dark and began experimenting with quick charcoal studies to get bolder with black.

I'm going to spend a week copying Walter Sickert's paintings and to work out how he deals with light in interiors.

This is my copy of Sickert's 'The Mantlepiece', I recognised that there is a real subtlety to creating light effects. It also made me think of a mantelpiece as also being an area of the interior that I wanted to investigate.

My mantelpiece taken from the vantage point of where I mostly view it.

Another quick chalk evening study of the light coming through to help with the practice of chiaroscuro.

Looking for help from the Dutch Masters at The National gallery, London

Thinking of a theatrical set up here to help create atmosphere and drama. Using coloured light bulbs strategically located! I wanted to continue with The Mantelpiece motif as I liked the idea of what people through the ages place on a mantelpiece, a bit like an altar? . I am wearing a medieval peasants dress and reading a book on ancient knowledge. It wasn't intended but it felt to me as though there was a priestess image emerging?

A quick a5 oil paint study using the 'set' where I'm trying to get to grips with the medium really using linseed oil on a special oil paper. I was also thinking of the colour pallette, I could have pushed this further. It is a stepping stone for the next part.

On the lookout for 'set ups/sets' I could use for my own images, I was blown away by this still I took from 'Peaky Blinders' It is an altar to a main character who has died in real life and in the programme. It has extra poignance because of that but it is the light, the dark and the objects that seemed to conjure up what I have been trying to communicate.

This is a continuation of the theatrical set up and trying out different poses and gestures. I was mindful of artist Laura Ford and how she conveys emotion in her sculptures through gesture.

Another quick study using oil paint, this time I used glazes rather than thickening, I found it much easier to handle, especially on a smaller slippery surface.

This was a combination of the both methods of a glaze, a ground and blending and removing. This was a4 and I found this easier to work with in oil.

A new technique I tried out using watercolour transfer and screens. This seemed to create the texture that alludes to a particular atmosphere I am trying to convey so I will be investigating this alongside the oil painting. I could see the

potential for using the same process for portraits.

Watercolour on a screenprint leading on from the transfer of other works, I painted the wrong side of the screen and it came out in reverse, only 1 print possible with this method.

Noticing that Hogarth's paintings of wealthy families often featured mantelpieces. I noticed that a regular feature was a bust of some important male or another.

When I looked up the origins of the word for mantel- it is cloak/beam. I began to think of taking up the mantel- which is a literal passing of the cloak/authority in patriarchal structures.

I thought of creating an image and the mantelpiece as being a place to 'view' the patriarchal structures which I believe began with the Roman Empire. I sketched a Roman Emperor in chalk to get the feel of how to paint it.

I imagined myself/female in mask in the foreground and the Bust on the mantelpiece in the background. This could represent these structures fading in the distance, toppling and the Feminine emerging. At least that is my hope that more of the Feminine values will come into balance with the healthy Masculine.

The marriage between the Masculine and Feminine, exploring light and perspective. This was early Sunday morning light, not the darkest or much range of light to be had as I am unable to blackout the space. All this before breakfast!

Having looked at Primitivism because of my interest in older, traditional cultures and magical objects I noticed a recurring image of the masculine as wooden figurine. I decided to play with the idea of the male being symbolic - for the healthy masculine to look at how the male operated in traditional, indeginous cultures. For example Females had the same rights as the Male in an older Celtic culture.

Picasso using Primitivism in his works

Max Weber surrealist artist using african mystical objects in work

I wanted to get a feel for how Francis Bacon painted and did my version of The Red Pope. I could see a woodland type creature and felt that the mixture of warm and cool earth tones were helping to create this idea. The looseness of brush marks freed me up and I enjoyed painting in this way.

I used one of the earlier images with the Celtic mask by the Mantelpiece and tried to introduce elements of Francis Bacon with less detail in the background, splashes of blue around edges.

Still searching for good natural light to take portraits, managed to catch a moment with the light and shadows.

The last image made me think of Matisse's portrait of his wife with a wooden type mask for a face and the light and shadow.

I think the use of the complimentary colours and the white mask make it look quite natural. I'm intrigued as to why he chose to use the mask.

I wanted to create the impression of the face/mask emerging from the dark to create mystery and mysticism. It does also remind me of the Matisse mask because of the hat, almost as if the mask is integrating into the subject.

I wanted to explore being outside and in nature, I did think of reimagining Laura Fords crying girls against trees and with various plants. There aren't enough flowers in bloom at this point in the year. But I noticed after taking this selfie it was reminiscent of Christ's crown of thorns. It is my belief that the patriarchal religion of Christianity is separating man/human from their true nature and the doctrine encourages us to dominate and take from the earth without understanding the delicate ecosystem we live in. This is why I want to honour and commune with ancient celtic ancestors as I believe they understood this.

As I thought of creating portraits with the mask I thought to experiment with using a mask on a portrait of my great grandmother. It is circas early 1900's and there is very faint colour in the image. I thought I would use the technique of screen printing that I used earlier in the project.

Picture of my great grandmother which I dug out from my parent's loft as there was a belief that it was unlucky?! This could be something I consider at a later point - people's beliefs!

Thinking of a 'Family Tree' (pardon the pun!) and altars and ritual - myself and my partner ventured into the forest where I used to play as a child. And also where my parents played too. As I chatted to them they began telling me the story of the place, talking about fishing there and the snakes they had seen. This fed into my notion of honouring the ancestors and including wildlife as important beings and ancestors. I created a 'set' thinking of a painting - worshipping the tree and all life.

Giving thanks by lighting a candle and uttering my intention to protect the earth and performing ritual.

In cultures where they have practiced shamanism it was part of the communion with spirit to 'transform' enter the spirit world by wearing a mask.

I am discovering that I am trying to communicate the importance of place and nature and what is sacred. I am investigating my own relationship to the sacred and how knowledge is passed on especially to a contemporary audience.

I wanted to introduce some of the creatures found in nature but were also held sacred by the ancient celts. We know this through the tales told such as The Salmon of Knowledge. I believe these tales hold a map for navigating nature, survival and are far from whimsical.

Branwen, the Raven spoken of in The Mabinogion, I wanted to experiment painting on different fabrics. In this instance I used the pattern to incorporate different features.

Issy Wood piece Mother as docked idol is a contemporary American artist. She paints disparate objects from a throwaway culture and places them in a dreamlike, surrealist arrangement. It was her painting onto velvet that drew me to her work and this image became the main inspiration for my final painting.

It would appear that in order to create a painting I need to create a mock up of it. I am finding this is creating interesting photographs and images in and of themselves. For this 'set' I was heavily inflenced throughout the project on the effect of light on a surface and the resulting 3d and atmosphere created. This is cognisant with the theme of the work being Sacred, Holy, and the collision of the two world views.

The two world view theme of what is sacred also represents my own upbringing hearing Welsh Baptist hymns and morality stories in school assemblies such as 'The Good Samaritan' and the backdrop of playing and being in nature, revering it, in a way that only children can.

I am discovering through this process that I am always trying to resolve something, to quote Andre Breton the 'Reconciliation of the Opposites' Maybe it is reconciling the child with the adult me? Nature with Human? Sacred with concrete?

Creirfa Holy, Sacred Place

“The world is full of magic things, patiently waiting for our senses to grow sharper.” ― W.B. Yeats

I have an objective. I want everyone to revere all living things.

I believe this is only achievable if we revive the ways of older cultures that were more in touch with spirit and nature.

My work is based on the feminine principles of trusting intuition and allowing the process to unfold. I use performance, painting, photography and video.

In the multi disciplinary pieces I have created I began with ‘dress up’ as a starting point, a way in. It would appear to be an entry point to my unconscious. By working in this way I am creating a character, a narrative, a stage.

Each item of clothing is carefully chosen to convey a message but the gestures are spontaneous and intuitive.

Through this process I am integrating my child self with my adult self, allowing the child who is free and knowing to be alongside the adult who is directing from the wings. This is my creirfa, my holy place. ‘The place of no place’

Integration of the self can be discussed in a Jungian context and in older and contemporary shamanic practices. The native shaman is the Celtic druid and it is this ancestor that has emerged from the darkness of my unconscious through images.

At the start of the project I sought out my own celtic ancestral heritage through the use of the mask. Upon reflection I realised that the mask is a tool used by traditional cultures across the world to enter different states and to travel to other worlds. This is described by anthropologist Arnold Van Gennep’s as a ‘liminal period’ when discussing Rites of Passage. In Theorist Stephen Greenblatts discussion of Liminal States and Transformations he talks about ‘something being extinguished, something becomes extinct’ ‘the identity is no longer your own’ (p28 Rites of Passage, 1995)

The characters, the rituals, the images, unintentionally described a Rite of Passage. I think I am onto something to investigate ‘the identity is no longer your own’ . I think this will continue to be a factor in my ongoing practice. The mask offers me the freedom to embody the real me whilst paradoxically being unidentifiable.