I was looking for inspiration for ‘wolf’ themed paintings when Julie pointed me towards this poem…
On Ederachillis’ shore
The grey wolf lies in wait-
Woe to the broken door,
Woe to the loosened gate,
And the groping wretch whom sleety fogs
On the trackless moor belate.
The lean and hungry wolf,
With his fangs so sharp and white,
His starveling body pinched
By the frost of a northern night,
And his pitiless eyes that scare the dark
With their green and threatening light.
He climeth the guarding dyke,
He leapeth the hurdle bars,
He steals the sheep from the pen,
And the fish from the boat-house spars,
And the digs the dead from out of the sod,
And gnaws them under the stars.
Thus every grave we dug
The hungry wolf uptore,
And every morn the sod
Was strewn with bones and gore:
Our mother-earth had denied us rest
On Ederchaillis’ shore
It’s an excerpt from a poem in The Book of Highland Minstrelsy, 1846, and if you’ve got a copy lying around please feel free to forward it my way 😉
Anyway, this is a quick painting to get me in the mood…
Overall it kind of says it all, but it’s not enough — your painting. The poem is much darker than that…
There needs to be gore, or something that alludes to it, for sure. 😉
Your wolf is believable — body-wise, but its facial expression isn’t powerful enough. The poem too is hardly believable but not impossible. I mean, would any wolf really do that? I know you didn’t write the poem, but I would make my poem and painting reflect some belief in a lone-devil wolf.
Sorry if this sounds like a criticism. I just want you to be brilliant the way I know you are. 😉
Julie wanted to see limbs being gnawed in the background I think 😉 as to whether it happened, who knows, sounds like a lot of effort for some rotten flesh 🙂