Ross Loveday, The Passing of Shadows, 2020

Drypoint with carborundum

Signed and titled in pencil

Numbered from the variable edition of 10

(Due to the nature of the printmaking each print varies significantly in colour, please contact us to see all available works from the edition)

Paper and image size: 720 x 550 mm

Contact the Studio on 0207 407 6561 for framing options and prices

Every print sold comes with a free copy of the accompanying book 'A Common Place', which includes reproductions of all the artworks and poems created for the project

Ross was paired with the writer Rob Briggs for the Common Place project.

Rob: For context, our common place is Pentre Ifan, an ancient burial site in Pembrokeshire. Ross and I found a shared interest in mythology, ancient places, music, and the theme of transition.

The text in part refers to the Black Cauldron (you may have seen the Disney animation of the same name, or read Lloyd Alexander's Chronicles of Prydain), a legendary ancient vessel in which the dead could be reborn.

Co-incidentally there are only seven stones left at Pentre Ifan. According to The Spoils of Annwfn - an early mediaeval poem included in the Book of Talesin - King Arthur entered Annwn (the Welsh underworld) with three boatloads of men, and only seven men returned. Matholwch was reputed to be an Irish King who was gifted the cauldron, which itself could be activated by the breath of nine maidens.

The conceit of the poem is to imagine the cauldron lies beneath the Pentre Ifan site and that the remaining stones are (somehow) the transformed seven who came back from the underworld with Arthur.

There's a lot to unpack there but I hope when you see it, you'll recognise how neatly Ross' lovely artwork meshes with the words and/or vice-versa. We definitely think alike and it's been very enjoyable working together.

The Passing of Shadows, by Rob Briggs

Hidden deep under heavy turf
His darkest maw, maidens' breath and curse
Exhales silent sentries
Of perpetual cost
Ifan's seven locked, embraced in moss

The men of shadows think in grey
Martyred menhirs dance and glance away
A time of transition
Steals
Brenin Arthur's once and future vision

Dry lichen drops caress each
Scarred and honoured face
Matholwch's gift of unearthly grace

Drypoint

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