Away with the Fairies
Artwork details: gouache, and some coloured pencil, 13.8 x 17 inches (35 x 43 cm), 2003.
You see fairies are not all that nice, really.
'Away with the Fairies' - painting in gouache
In this picture the little girl is being led away by the adoring fairies, in something of a trance. There are many tales of people being led away by these creatures, long before fairies became the twinkly sweet things that they seem to be now. These people often never returned, or returned just at the end of their lives, or returned to find (having been gone for a few hours) that a hundred years had passed and everyone they knew was long dead. Generaly a visit to fairyland is not to be recommended.
'Away with the Fairies' - detail
According to folklore if you once eat food in fairyland you can never return home. Interestingly this rather echoes the tale of Persephone, abducted by Hades to the Greek Underworld - she could never properly return either, having finally been tempted to eat (a pomegranate, as it happens) while she was there.
Another painting of mine, not unlike 'Away With the Fairies', is this one: 'Things that are not There' (click the thumbnail to see it). Only this time it is rather less certain who is in charge, or who is leading whom...
All images and prints are © Nancy Farmer. Please email me if you wish to reproduce any of these images, or see my permissions page in the 'info' section.
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