Wednesday, March 7, 2012

Little Brontë foxes

Finished at last!


It's been a long time coming, mainly because of other stuff, as I mentioned before. Can't be doing with distracting background noise, literal or metaphorical, brings out the worst kind of procrastination in me.
Anyway, here it is, Haworth Parsonage in the snow (despite the fact that we have been experiencing summertime temperatures over here for the last few days).

The snowmen, which started out more prominent, have been relegated to watchers - watching the three sisters watching them from inside. So they retain their sinister, gothicky aspect even if somewhat watered down. The foxes were introduced as a splash of colour (I just knew that National Geographic portrait of an orange-haired kabuki actor would come in useful one day!) and movement. Three sisters ... three foxes ... mmmmm. Three snowmen if it comes to that. Obviously highly significant.
Or maybe not.

As is often the case with these house portraits it was a piece of the occupants' writings that settled me on the final image.
In this case a poem by Emily which starts:

The moon is full this winter night;
The stars are clear though few;
And every window glistens bright
With leaves of frozen dew ...

Well okay, lots of snowflakes rather than a few stars and lamplight rather than leaves of frozen dew.
Big full moon though.
 
Anyway, it is ready in time for my Christmas 2012 greeting card collection.
Method in my madness.

5 comments:

  1. So lovely. Like your color palette and the thoughts behind it all. You could easily be the long lost 4th sister...

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  2. That's very pretty - it will be a perfect Christmas card and you should be proud of yourself getting ready for that mad time in advance.

    P.S. I love your foxes!

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  3. Well, the painting's 'stand alone' beautiful, really lovely - and also ideal as a Christmas card. Well done, Amanda.

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  4. Everything about this is wonderful! I love the background story, the 'watchers', and the beautiful composition as well. I MUST get a collection of your greeting cards!

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  5. Hi, Amanda, I work at the Bronte Parsonage Museum, and loved your work featuring the Parsonage. Have you thought about contacting the Museum with a view to getting your cards stocked there, either in the shop, and/or online? The person you should contact is: sean.killian@bronte.org.uk if you are interested in doing so.

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