I finished another of my projects which had been languishing partly finished. It’s a triptych with my patron saint, St. Melangell.
It's three wood panels. I haven’t put it together yet, as I’m considering whether or not to hinge it. In a way, it doesn’t make sense because the side pieces are too wide for the triptych to ever be shut. Also, it will be more difficult to get the background patterns to match if I hinge it rather than simply connect the three pieces with strips of wood screwed onto the backs.
Here are the three pieces individually:
St. Melangell was born a princess in the early 7th century in Ireland. As a young woman, she fled to Wales to escape a forced marriage and became a hermit in the remote valley of Pennant Melangell in Powys.
One day, fifteen years later, the local prince was hunting nearby when he sent his hounds after a hare which had run into the brush. The hounds suddenly quieted, and when the prince went after them, he found a young woman sheltering the hare. The hounds were docile in her presence and retreated from the hare.
The prince gave the young woman the piece of land on which she was living. She built a small abbey and lived the rest of her life, 37 years, there.
Wild animals were tame in her presence. She became the patron saint of hares, and as late as 1900, hares were not hunted in the area.
To create this piece, I began with the drawings, then adhered them to the gesso’d poplar boards. (I bought the poplar boards at Lowe's and cut them to length.) The drawings were quite developed so that I only needed to add transparent washes of color to them (acrylic paint). It was a fun exercise to design the background. I was looking for something reminiscent of Celtic culture, but not overly so. My favorite part was the birds.
This was a labor of love, and I expect it will be hanging in my bedroom for the duration.
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