“The Giver” is the title of a soon to be finished piece of artwork which is one in several pieces in a series entitled Feminine Mystique. The concept behind this series is to visually convey the aura of mystery, awe, courage and spiritual power surrounding women throughout time. The women depicted in each piece of artwork, also serves to visually communicate the fecund quality and life-force of the place the figure inhabits. The images of the women, then, serve as a visual representation of the spirit of the particular place shown in each piece in the series.

 

The place chosen for the setting of “The Giver” is Rathborney which is a church and burial ground built on the site of an old ring fort in the Burren area of County Clare, Ireland. The church is in ruin now but the ancient burial ground is still used today. It is a late Gothic period church, circa 1500 AD. The artwork depicts the south doorway of the church with wild garlic growing in the foreground. This is a beautiful and quiet place, It is high in the hills and the limestone mountains of the Burren encircle it. The student’s words below help to describe the sense of this place:

 

“No matter how much I read from John O’Donohue’s words or William Butler Yeats’, nothing could have prepared me for what I experienced during my travels through County Clare, Ireland’s Burren landscape. The vibrations of the earth’s energies and the voices of ancestral love and woes enveloped and consumed me with their mixed messages . . . Each ruin breathed and whispered stories of their presence. An ancient people had once inhabited these locations. The monuments / ruins they left behind and their voices, etched in the record of time attested this.” Angela L. Olson

 

This place was selected particularly for “The Giver” because of the quality of strength and wisdom that I sensed during my visits there.

As you can see the compositional layout shows the figure of a women standing in front of the doorway of the church. The drawing for the background is complete and I’m currently in the process of drawing the figure of the women. I have finished a detailed study of the women’s face - when the final drawing of the figure is complete I will composite the two images using Photoshop and add color to the artwork using various combinations of painting and layer modes. When the artwork is complete I will add it to this page with a description of the painting and layer modes used.