The Fourth Branch

So, thought id show you what i've been up to at the moment with regards to my welsh mythology project. These thumbnails are to do with the character Blodeuwedd who appears in the fourth branch of the Mabinogion. My aim with this was to create a complete story in one picture. This idea originated from the Mappi Mundi maps painted in medieval europe. Whilst they functioned as maps, and quite accurately at that considering what measuring equipment they had at the time, they also portrayed figures and stories from history, mythology and important religious icons to that area. Thus, they became a living landscape that incorporate both the geography of the area, but a cultural understanding of it too.

I took these ideas when completing my own Mappi Mundi for the Welsh tales, and also incorporated as much iconography and clues relating to the tales as possible. I havn't decided which figure best matches the frame yet, but once i've come to that conclusion, I'll be painting that up into a finished visual.

In regards to this part of the Mabinogion, the owl references the eventual fate of Blodeuwedd, while Llech Gronw is the stone where her lover, Gronw, was slain by her husband Lleu Llaw Gyffes. The inscription around the image reads: 'Flowers of the oak, flowers of the broom, flowers of the meadowsweet'.

I want to include as many references as possible in these images, which will give them as much depth as a viewer is willingly to go. If anything, I like hiding secret clues and messages within my work, so I expect these will only get more elaborate!

Im going to do an entire series of these chronicling the story of the Mabinogion, so what this space.