Penda of Mercia

As part of a year long collaborative project 'Face to Face' about Penda of Mercia with 29 other midlands artists resulted in a new body of work. In response to the idea of Penda, the last pagan king, and his army always being at war, materials, dyes, pigments etc are used to evoke the sense of his war party. Penda himself is represented by the powerful wild boar together with various pagan symbols to help protect their lord and his people. Woad, an ancient British dye is use to colour wool cloth and found leather, with natural inks, pigments, linen and gold threads add mark. In addition, some cold wax medium with oil pastels work on canvas completes this purposely crude yet evocative collection.