Andraste is a warrior goddess of the ancient Britons; she was invoked by Boudicca before battles with the invading Romans around 2,000 years ago. She is the Britons’ equivalent of the Irish / Celtic war goddess Morrigan.
For over a decade now I have been working with a male life model who is also a soldier and have developed a large body of work, drawings and various forms of printmaking, around the concept of The Warrior. I have also more recently been drawing a female retired soldier and I am thinking of developing these drawings … and more to come … into another body of work focused on The Warrior, but this time the female aspect. And I’m interested in linking this to the ancient mythology of the war goddess. Early days yet.
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Looking forward to seeing your new series. This is a cracker to start with. Good to recognise the number of women in the armed forces world wide.
Thanks Leonie. The concept of The Warrior has been a very masculine one, so I’m interested in looking at what makes a female warrior tick
It is also interesting that there are a number of war goddesses. I was thinking of Bellona, there is a statue of her at the Australian War Memorial that I sketched late last year. I see from Wikipedia that she was actually a Sabine goddess. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bellona_(goddess)
Thanks for that, Leonie
Hi Rose
Can I ask what materials you are using for this please?
Cheers
Neil
Hi Neal, it’s conte crayon in white, sanguine and black onto brown wrapping paper 🙂
Ok
Same as me then. That’s the closest we get to the materials of the old masters. Great drawings though.
Thanks Neil. I’ve experimented with silverpoint, which was used in the Renaissance and before pencils were invented. Interesting technique but very detailed.