The Raven

It's been a busy couple of weeks, what with workshops at university, the print symposium, working at the clinic, and stewarding for the Impress festival.
Much of it has been enjoyable, but not much time to get on with my own artwork. I did do this very large charcoal drawing of a scene from my interpretation of a Grimms tale called The Raven, using one of my ceramic bird girls as a model.

Charcoal on paper (75x60 cms approx)

There was once upon a time a queen who had a little daughter who was still so young that she had to be carried.  One day the child was naughty, and the mother might say what she liked, but the child would not be quiet.  The queen became impatient, and as the ravens were flying about the palace, she opened the window and said, "I wish you were a raven and would fly away, and then I should have some rest".  Scarcely had she spoken the words, before the child was changed into a raven, and flew from her arms out of the window.  It flew into a dark forest, and stayed in it a long time, and the parents heard nothing of their child.

 

Then one day a man was bathing in the lake in the forest and heard the raven crying in some nearby bushes, and followed the sound, and when he came nearer, the bird said, "I am a king's daughter by birth, and am bewitched, but you can set me free".  "What am I to do, asked he......"