The creation of any image is a complex affair but normally I have a clear concept in my head before I tackle a commission of importance and this was a really important commission that unfortunately ended up like so much of my work, stuck on a dusty shelf somewhere in the USA.
I was approached in 1998 by an American company specialising in the collector plate market which is absolutely huge and asked to create an image for their research department (yep) to produce on a collector plate and the fee was damn good but the real carrot was the idea of creating a series of artworks to celebrate the powerful women who gave their names to Ireland.
I intended to start with the original triumvirate of warrior women who gave their names to the island of Ireland, Ériu, Fodhla and Banbha.
I loved the idea of a series on powerful Irish goddesses which I felt was way ahead of the curve at the time, back in the late 90s.
Unfortunately, the company was not keen on this idea ‘Too aggressive’ etc so they changed the concept to the ludicrous ‘Celtic Maidens’ series. Yes, very virginal and pure, no more warrior goddesses, no big boobs, no overt sexuality, blah, blah, blah…. Just a series on nice submissive ‘maidens’.
Who the f**k calls women ‘Maidens’ -even back then in 1998, but I digress.
I spent many hours working on this one and fine-tuned it first in an elaborate pencil drawing then when it was approved I photocopied a section of the drawing and did a section in watercolour to give an idea of the colour scheme.
The women I was working within the US company were superb but there was a conservative board and they obviously were not wild on my idea of powerful war goddesses beside their maukey Princess Diana and Elvis stuff so in the end, despite the changes I made at their behest the series was aborted which was a real pity.
Both I and the women I was working within this company were disappointed and annoyed when the project was dropped but that’s life and to be fair they did pay me properly and were professional.
Their results are all group research-based and the feedback was exactly as I feared: too powerful and aggressive, too domineering, too sexy…I could go on.
Back to the images.
My first effort was a very detailed pencil drawing, full A1 size, 23”x33”.
When you are dealing with commissions like this one you don’t do roughs you just go for it. They loved the drawing so I got the go-ahead to the finished painting but first I sent a rough colourway so they had a good idea of my direction colour wise. Yep, lots of green for Ireland and all things Oirish.
If you look carefully at the base of the goddess the ground is full of tiny shamrocks for a laugh.
My final painting was received well but they felt it was too busy so my second version has all the beautiful DéDannan invasion fleet ‘that sailed the high and the low air’ according to our ancient manuscripts, painted over to simplify the image and focus on the main character, the goddess Ériu herself.
Luckily back then, before the advent of proper digital technology, I had almost every one of my works photographed in 4”x%’ transparency film by my late friend Louis Pieterse and his colleague David Davison, a superb and technically gifted team, who both worked for our national Gallery, photographing any new arrivals so they knew their stuff.
Which do you prefer? I love the original a lot, much more than the finished version. It’s all about perception and choice. Different folks, different strokes.
The original versions presented to the plate company were both circular format originally but when they were rejected I decided to bring them to the standard I felt they deserved and added the outer decoration with the help of one of my then assistants, the gifted Celtic artist Jeff Adams.
ÉRIU. SHÍ-SPIORADH. NOTE.
Ériu.
Translation: ‘Shí-Spirit of the Island of Emerald’
(I refused to use the corney ‘Emerald Isle’ stuff.
One of my better works depicting the goddess who gave her name to the Éireann, the powerful descendants of the mystical tribe of warriors and wizards known as the Tuatha Dé Danann, who came to this island from the Middle East and led the invasion of Ireland in very ancient times.
Ériu is one of the triple warrior goddesses who gave their names to this beautiful island. Ireland=Éireann=Érin=Éire=Ériu.
Her race was the fair and the redheads who supplanted the indigenous North African rulers of neolithic Ireland and their mostly coastal inhabitants. The other two goddesses represented the darker ‘Black Irish’ races who came with this invasion force and conquered the entire island before the coming of the Celts.