Folklore - Judith Clarke

                              Judith Clarke, Folklore, Krampus and the Birds.

I chose the theme Folklore as it a subject I love. I am continually finding new stories, new characters, all of which give us an insite into our forebares, their daily lives and their beliefs. I've been working with, looking at birds recently, particually ravens and crows. I have been using their imagary in my work so chose to continue with this theme for this challenge.

 I drew the birds freehand then decided to heavily stitch the background to make them pop. Whilst stitching I kept gettng snowy thoughts, we hadn't got snow here, it was winter and dark, that made me think of another character I love. Krampus, the Christmas Wildman from Europe who chases children and whips the badness out of them. At least in the tamer tales. So Krampus appeared with the birds.

I stitched him following my freehand drawing, then decided to paint him in. He has furs around his shoulders echoing his wild character. As I continued to stitch the background I decided I need snow around Krampus so found a changing line and started to stitch the birds instead of the background. I really enjoyed this change in texture and colour.

 I bound it in black as its a fairly dark peice and its also the dark time of year. To give the birds the feel of flight and movement I also let their wings escape the binding. See the first image. So here is my Folklore Challenge. Hope you like it.