Moon and Magic, Witch and Woman

I finally put down my needles and thread, and picked up a pencil instead! This is what I have been working on for the last couple of days. Unfortunately my scanner can't pick up graphite lines very well - it's actually an extremely detailed drawing, but the paler lines are lost here. I had a very wobbly moment when I began painting. It is on Bristol board, and watercolour paint runs and dries very strangely on it's satiny surface. It buckled lots to start with , and I had a moment when I thought it was going to be ruined. But thankfully, it all came together eventually, and the end result is just what I had in mind. I am going to have to get it professionally scanned and printed though, as I want prints to be just as crisp and sharp as the original, and the moon should be palest gold, rather than the copper that my scanner has registered. Shiny paint always confuses the scanners :)

I'll leave you with a couple of songs which I have been listening to, while thinking about hares! The first is Maddy Prior's song cycle 'The Fabled Hare'. This has the most wonderful lyrics, most of which I shan't copy for you here, as I am not entirely sure of the copyright issues surrounding it, but I'll give you the first verse, which is taken from the confession of Isobel Gowdie, a Scottish woman tried for witchcraft in 1662. She claimed that this was the spell which she and her coven used to transform themselves into Hares.

I sall goe until a hare

Wi sorrow and sick mickle care

I sall goe in the devil's name

An while I come home again

You can hear Maddy Prior singing it here. (It's a rather rubbish video - needless to say , not her own, but it was the only one I could find to embed here)

(EDIT: I have removed the youtube video, as I had initial doubts about the photographs and artwork used on it, and Karen Davies from Moonlight and Hares has pointed out that one of the images was one of her paintings, used without permission :( BUT, instead I have added a link HERE where you can listen to the track in all it's glory, without a video!)

And then there is this - one of my favourite songs ever. This is Seth Lakeman, singing 'The White Hare'. You have probably heard it before, as it has been on my blog playlist forever, but this is just in case you needed to see him as well :)