My starting points intended for this series of paintings were the poems and legends of Celtic Mythology, my inspiration the Northumberland landscape.
Preserved in the Red book of Hergest, from the poem Gwyn and Gwythur.
Gwyn and Gwythur were two deities, or demi gods that waged perpetual war to possess Creurdilad, each in turn stealing her from the other, until the matter was referred to Arthur (Arthur was the Celtic alternative to Zeus often mistaken for the mythical King, ‘Arthur’)
Who decided the two should fight for her every first of May, from henceforth until the day of doom, and that whichever of them should then be the conqueror should have the maiden. What satisfaction this would be for the survivor of what might be somewhat flippantly described as the longest engagement on record, is not very clear; but its mythological interpretation appears fairly obvious.
In Gwyn, we see the god of death and the underworld, and in the solar deity, Gwythur, we see the power of darkness and sunshine, in each, the force to create winter and summer, in contest each alternately winning and losing a bride who seems to represent the spring with its grain and flowers. Thus referring to the movement through the seasons, of death and rebirth.Rhys:
Hibbert Lectures pp 561-563
From the reference points of man myth and nature, I formed the foundation of these abstract paintings, which conform to texture and process in their design.
