Away with the fairies

Graeme Skinner — Wed, 14 Oct 2015 07:15:45 +0000

I’ve been away with the fairies for the last couple of weeks, well, I’ve been reading about some of the myths surrounding fairies, fay, fae, fair folk…. I started with Tolkien’s On Fairy Stories, which felt like a natural starting point, I then went on to read Tolkien’s Smith of Wootton Major for obvious reasons and delved into Celtic Twilight by Yeats. They all pointed me in different directions but all had a common them in many respects, if time allows this week I’d say another reading of Faerie Tale by Raymond E. Feist is in order

Whilst reading about the wee folk is interesting (and fun), I did get the urge to paint something before I’d finished even the basic amount of research, so I started painting Castlerigg Stone Circle at night, added a Moon shot I’d taken recently then dropped a fairy or two into the mix

There have been many theories put forward as to why our ancestors built stone circles, the truth is that they didn’t. Stone circles we built for and used by the fair folk as a meeting place, even today if you hide near a stone circle on a clear night you can just make out fair folk gathering around the stones (though some sit on the stones much to the disgust of the elders, that however is another story).

And the reason I’ve been away with the fairies so much recently, blame John, he set it as the theme of the month for October over on his website “The realm of faerie is all yours to explore in October. Victorians were very fond of fairies, there is some astonishing reference material out there, as well as the work of illustrators like Ida Rental Outhwaite. Just be careful of mushroom circles.”

Now I need to see if Smith has returned to Wootton Major, as he keeps popping off making it difficult to get a good sketch of him.

fairy – Graeme Skinner

Away with the fairies