SANTA WARNA LANDS, c.1947
Drawing. Dimensions unknown.
Provenance
Untraced.
Exhibited
London, Mayor Gallery, 1947, (drawings) No. 6.
St Warna was the patron saint of the Scilly Island of St Agnes and presided over wrecks. When islanders wanted a wreck to plunder, it was said that they would go to the well, utter a prayer and drop pins in the water.
Colquhoun's prose poem, The Myth of Santa Warna (1) deals with the saint’s arrival from Ireland in a hide-covered wicker boat, her wishing well, the Old Man of Gugh and her ultimate identification with the land itself.
Notes
1. Colquhoun, I. The Myth of Santa Warna. The Glass, issue 1, Summer
1948. Unpaginated.