29th March 2024 - Spring

Sitting Hare by Charles Tunnicliffe

Raised in the Catholic faith by a Jewish grandfather who had adopted me, no wonder I look on Easter with a quizzical eye!  Completely non-religious as I am now I still enjoy the pagan festival when we acknowledge Spring with eggs (okay chocolate ones are not very exciting) and images of hares.

But each year I will bring forth this story about Saint Melangell, for it captures the goodness of looking after animals, the moment the Prince stops killing and Melangell steps forward to save the hare.  I often wonder if Boudicca also raised a hare to the skies as she led her people into battle against the Romans.

The lovely story of Saint Melangell and her little hare. She was the daughter of King Cufwlch and Ethni of Ireland and she fled to Wales to escape a forced marriage. She settled in Pennant at the head of a valley, and whilst one day sitting in a clearing she heard the sound of a hunt, dogs and horses galloping up the valley. This was Prince Brochwael of Powys hunting hares. As she sat a hare came into the clearing and Melangell hid it in the sleeve of her dress to protect it. When it peeped out the dogs fled, and so the Prince gave her the land on which he hunted, and she lived at Pennant for another 37 years and no animal was killed in her sanctuary. Hares were known as wyn bach Melangell or Melangell's little lambs, and to kill a hare was an act of sacrilege.

This morning a beautiful hare painting went through a forum, it was outlined in gold and it reminded me of how Paul would delicately take the little sheets of gold to highlight a scroll, tamping it down.  Gold is splashed easily over the painted surface of Mary and Jesus, it shines like the sun at Spring.  So my favourite depiction of a hare by Charles Tunnicliffe, golden in the light of the sun, basking quietly away is the heading above.  

I have two prints of hares both by Colin Blanchard, he gouges his wood printing block out and writes words with the artwork, on the one he has written ----

"Spring witch passed through the edge of the wood then bidden by a blackcap and watered by a willow warbler's trickle the ground turned green where her feet fell."

Looking back through old blogs, is a mostly happy experience and I see from that date I wrote the following---

So my print has come home, Antony did a good job on framing, a dark blonde wood with a pale green matt.  It seems strange amongst the Japanese prints, and has replaced an old painting we bought from a local dealer.  This old painting has a history of falsification, a print over painted with oils, but it is very Yorkshireish.
When I look at the 'Spring Witch' it will remind me of the pale lemon of the primrose in Spring, it will remind me also of scouring the woods for mushrooms, but most of all the words will remind me to accept the fact that witches, fairies may not exist but it would be magical if they did. ;)

Last night I watched a video from the 'The Homely House' about a small clutch of 'makers, or crafters'.  What do you call them? artists maybe. The person who had done a small painting lived in a wooden 'Hobbit house' for goodness sake, must look up that video!

So as an end note, I say welcome Spring, primroses and hares for they are the sign of renewed hope.