August 2024

• Beautiful quality fine art print from my original pencil drawing
• Limited edition of 100 ONLY
• Signed and editioned
• 390 x 567 mm approx, on 420 x 597mm paper (A2)
• Printed on heavyweight 315gsm archival watercolour paper
• Epson UltraChrome HD inks.

Blodeuwedd (pron. blowday-WAIRTH) was created from flowers by the legendary wizard Gwydion to be the wife of his nephew Lleu Llaw Gyffes, who had been cursed to never have a human woman by his side. Yet from the moment she took her first breath, Blodeuwedd was more than what these men intended. She was not just the delicate bloom they fashioned, but a force rooted in and arising from the earth, with strong desires of her own. And one of those desires was for the noble lord Gronw Pebr.

In my feeling about this myth, the discovery of her love for Gronw Pebr was not a betrayal. It was an awakening. She is originally crafted entirely from fantasy, a projection for men, with no life of her own. In a mythopoetic sense, when killing her husband, she is killing those projections, or those patriarchal expectations of her role.

For her great defiance, in his fury, Gwydion punishes her by transforming her into an owl. She is condemned to a life of isolation, marked as a creature of the night.

But for me, her ‘punishment’ is her liberation. Her transformation is her ascension.

Because in the dark, she finds herself. The owl, wise and solitary, is her true self-realised form. A creature unfettered by the laws of day and the constraints of human hands. Freed entirely from the roles of wife or lover, Blodeuwedd soars silent and free under the moon, her all-seeing eyes piercing the shadows, wisdom extending from the quietude of night.

What they see as punishment, she embraces as power. In the darkness, Blodeuwedd becomes sovereign over herself, a symbol of freedom, a reminder that even when cast aside, a woman can rise, stronger and more attuned to her own truth and power.

So I interpret Blodeuwedd’s story as one of becoming. Of reclaiming the autonomy denied her and emerging as a being of wisdom and wildness, no longer shaped by the hands of men, but by the strength of her own spirit.

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All prints ship flat, backed with board in a transparent sleeve, beautifully wrapped in tissue and ribbon, in a robust card wrap. Hand written message included just for you.
Gifting messages also possible - just let me know when you order.
Fully insured and tracked, worldwide shipping.

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With gratitude to my florid Muse: Diana da Rosa
Beautiful hand made frame pictured here by Northwood Framing https://www.northwoodframing.com