Fire Spirit

The Firebird

The Firebird from Russian folklore

I drew this sketch of a Firebird laddy last year, inspired by the beguiling drawings of Russian illustrator Ivan Bilibin. The Firebird is a magical bird with iridescent feathers, who can be glimpsed in Slavic folklore pinching apples from the King's garden. At the Diaghilev exhibition at the V&A Museum, where I dream drifted in December, there was a whole room dedicated to a ballet of the Firebird. A ceiling high painted backdrop of Aladdin~esque buildings and a video roll of photographs... swirling fabric feathers and multicoloured wings... it was magical. I sailed home with a treasure, a compilation of Russian faerytales illustrated by Bilibin, the original cover of which was nestled behind glass in the exhibition, and a black pencil tipped with a glittering green jewel... I think a twinkle from the Firebird's feather.

Mr Faun ii

Mr Faun ii

Mr Faun is beckoning us into an emerald forest...

Emerald green spellbinds me, wonderdust woodlands and whirring meadows, painting the Emerald City from the Wizard of Oz and building an emerald forest in a shoebox many moons ago. The shoebox has shimmering green cellophane in square windows, so the little kingdom glistens green for whoever peeps inside.

Medieval literature is woven with dazzling emerald dust... from Sir Gawain and the Green Knight:

"His clothes were all kindled with a clear light like emeralds: 

His belt buckles sparkled, and bright stones were set
in rich rows arranged up and down
himself and his saddle. Worked in the silk
were too many trifles to tell the half of:
embroidered birds, butterflies, and other things
in a gaudy glory of green and inlaid gold."

to The Prioress' Tale, one of The Canterbury Tales by Chaucer:

"This gem of chastity, this emerald..."

... and emerald green can be spied far away from our glittering green forests here...

In alchemy, the Greene Lyon, or Green Lion, was the characterisation of the process of mixing nitric acid with hydrochloric acid, which creates aquae regia (royal water), a liquid with a green tinge.

"Here is the Universal Dissolvent, the Green Lion or Mercury of the Wise, without which nothing can be achieved..." (from Michael Maier's 1618 book, Antalanta fugiens)

The solution can dissolve all metals including gold (the mineral of the sun), thus, depictions of the green lion gobbling up the sun can be found in alchemical literature. The Green Lion was also used to describe photosynthesis by naturalist alchemists, the raw green energy of nature, eloquently expressed as "the green fuse which drives the flower" by Dylan Thomas.

The Green Man, the spirit and essence of nature... I think I would love to paint him.

Inspiration ~ glistening emerald meadow next to The Hundred Acre Wood in Sussex 

Maybe he sings about the leaves he is woven from...

A leaf from my sketchbook ~ magical tree names

Mr Faun

This laddy is a mixed media painting of my Prince as a treetop nestled tryllefløyte (magic flute) playing faun.

In Roman mythology, fauns are half~man, half~goat incarnations of forest and animal spirits, with little horns, pointed ears, hooves and a tail. They are depicted as mischievous and fond of dance and music, and capable of guiding or guiding astray men who stumble into the wilderness. Fauns are comparable to the Greek god Pan and his satyrs, and the cheeky woodland sprite Puck from English folklore.

Spellbinding tales starring faun characters include C.S. Lewis' The Chronicles of Narnia (Mr Tumnus), Mexican film~maker Guillermo del Toro's bewitching fantasy Pan's Labyrinth, and Russian ballet dancer and choreographer Vaslav Nijinsky's sensual L'après-midi d'un faune. Inspired by the poem of the same name by French poet and critic Stéphane Mallarmé, it was originally created for the Ballets Russes. Below, Russian dancer Rudolf Nureyev will perform L'après-midi d'un faune for you...

The ballet's score, Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune, was written by French composer Claude Debussy. Debussy said of his music ~

"The music of this prelude is a very free illustration of Mallarmé's beautiful poem. By no means does it claim to be a synthesis of it. Rather there is a succession of scenes through which pass the desires and dreams of the faun in the heat of the afternoon. Then, tired of pursuing the timorous flight of nymphs and naiads, he succumbs to intoxicating sleep, in which he can finally realize his dreams of possession in universal Nature."

Merriest spirit entwined in the branches of my darling forest faun

Mr Salamander

Kaleidoscopic Forest Spirits!

Tree Spirits

Pixie Prince and Russian faerytales

Drifting in dreamland with my Prince... his imagination pisks me into krem... much enchantment to scan in...

Magic carpetted yesterday to the Diaghilev exhibition at the V and A Museum... beguiled by a Russian faerytale cover illustrated by Ivan Bilibin and a beautiful photograph of a woodland faun from the sylvan ballet, 'L'Après-midi d'un faune'... composer~conductor Pierre Boulez wrote "the flute of the faun brought new breath to the art of music"...

Woodland Wings

(My hunk as a branch-crowned peacock Prince)