Winter’s Light

Doorways to Otherworlds exist in many cultures and mythic cycles, but the passages to the Realm of Annwn in the Celtic tradition are my favorite.  There are at least two schools of thought concerning them, both delightful. The first claims that there was once a doorway in a rock by the side of a lake that we could pass through on a certain day of the year. Evidently, one year things got a bit wild, and we wore out our welcome.  The other school claims that doorways are everywhere, and we need only patience and belief to see them.   Stags and owls pass freely between our realm and Otherworlds, so I’m inclined to entertain both possibilities.

Some say that the Otherworld is the opposite of our world in odd ways.  They say that a person travelling from one to the other on a bright summer’s day would suddenly find themselves wandering a silent, snow bound winter’s night.  Sunlight to moonlight, scudding clouds to stars flashing like diamonds on dark velvet. . .

Imagine a gleam of sunlight peeping from the trunk of an old weathered beech tree on an icy, gray January twilight, and the sudden scent of soft, faint flowers and sweet fern on the frigid air.  Imagine that a doorway appears slowly, slowly, unfurling and uncurling in the gathering dusk.

Would you go inside?

Just like the owls I painted last year, this piece looks amazing in a gold frame, BUT will be sold and shipped in a white mat.  Why?  Two reasons: A- maybe our frame tastes are WILDLY different, and you’d like to pick your own, and B- the owls have an easier time flying to you without glass.  Glass makes them nervous.

Watercolor on 140lb Cold Press

Image size: 7.5 X 9.5″

Mat size: 11 X 14″