DRYAD: BEECH, 1971
Gouache. Dimensions unknown.
Provenance
Untraced.
Exhibited
Newlyn, Newlyn Art Gallery, 1971, No. 17.
In 1972, Colquhoun published a sequence of poems, Grimoire of the Entangled Thicket, on the theme of the Celtic calendar and tree alphabet. In the introduction she wrote: “In 1971 I made a number of drawings based on the automatic process known as decalcomania which evoke the spirit of various trees: Beech, Rowan, Ash, Willow, Oak, Vine and Silver Fir. Some of these, and the poetic sequence, I offer to the White Goddess at a time when wasteful technology is threatening the plant life (and with it all the organic life) of earth and the waters.”
In Greek mythology Dryads belong to the class of nymphs: female divinities associated with various natural objects. Nymphs were generally depicted as being young, beautiful, musical, amorous and gentle although some were vengeful and destructive. Dryads were tree nymphs who live in a tree and die when the tree dies.
Reference
Colquhoun, I. Grimoire of the Entangled Thicket. Ore Publications, Stevenage, Hertfordshire. 1973.