Inspiration - Richard. E. Clarke - The Witches Boat

 


'Richard studied, and later taught, at the renowned Art School in Scarborough founded by artist, yacht designer, sailor and writer Albert Strange in the early 1900s. He gained recognition as a watercolourist and engraver, and exhibited at London galleries and at the Royal Academy, and at the Yorkshire Art Exhibition. He was also an art teacher at Scarborough Boys’ High School, and in 1937 became the first ever president of Scarborough Art Society, which still flourishes today.
 
Clarke was the younger brother of William James Clarke (1871-1945), the renowned naturalist and folklorist whose extensive collection of charms and amulets formed the basis of the popular Scarborough Art Gallery exhibition Fears, Foes and Faeries in 2012.'

https://museumofwitchcraftandmagic.co.uk/news/the-witches-boat/




This pen and watercolour illustration by Richard. E. Clarke is an amazing depiction of two witches and a male character navigating a stormy sea, with egg shells as boats and a ship in the background. I think the line work and level of detail is really impressive and the marks contain so much motion and energy that it creates a very immersive, chaotic scene. There seems to be an exchange going on between the witches and the ship, and the composition makes us feel like we are on the witches side - I think this is unusual as we might normally expect them to be antagonised.
Since I want to look at nature in the world of magic for this project, the egg shells are the focal point for me and it makes me wonder what other strange natural things I can find that are related to witches by some obscure, almost forgotten tales.

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