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G214A Nine Ladies Weeping At The Death Of A Phoenix
Oil on panel
Jan to May 2010, Size 556x400 mm

About this painting

Painted for the Derbyshire Open Exhibition in 2008, a regular event that features Derbyshire related paintings. I wanted to paint something specific, and decided to paint The Nine Ladies, a neolithic stone circle. Despite the fact that the circle was excitingly threatened by a nearby quarry, I failed to come up with a definite good idea and it was some weeks before I arrived at this one.

A key element is that the actual stone circle is visible in the sky, a reflection, or perhaps more correctly a vision of the circle seen from underneath from the surface of a lake. The picture then represents the sí, the Celtic Otherworld, a supernatural domain which can be accessed through bodies of water. The lower half of the picture features nine female figures of stone (femiliths) in a ring, each weeping in Victorian dress to represent the passing of an era in Britain.

I needed a focus for their tears, and a fire in the centre became a bird, a fire bird, and phoenix; a symbol of death and rebirth.

Technical details

This is the a second version of this painting, painted on a slightly larger scale.

Nine Ladies Weeping At The Death Of A Phoenix (Original)
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