Artwork description:

Have you heard of the devil in the Welsh lady's shawl? It's a well-known question for fans of Welsh art, the famous painting Salem by Sydney Curnow Vosper being the painting it refers to. I didn't see it until it was pointed out to me, and to be honest, it's a bit spurious. When I was told to look for the Devil in the Welsh lady's shawl, I was expecting something a bit more obvious.

So, with a wicked glint in my eye, I went for the obvious. You want to see the devil in a Welsh lady's shawl? Hold my pint... I was convinced I could recreate a similar version to the original painting with my batch of Welsh lady photos. The chapel was a bit more tricky, I went to Pen-rhiw Chapel at St Fagans Museum Of Welsh Life and took a load of photos of the interior with a mind to recreating a facsimile of the painting.

After a lot of digital wrangling, I got a close representation. I had to fix the window in the background and paste in a view. I had to hunt for a devil tale, and a statue of the Welsh dragon at Cardiff Castle obliged. And then I added images from my collection to recreate the congregation. With that done, I manually added watercolours to the image to give it the feel of a Victorian hand painted CDV. And now, you can't miss her, it's the devil in a Welsh lady's shawl. Obviously.

Coincidentally, this piece was exhibited at Aberystwyth Art Centre in 2022, just over the road from the National Library of Wales, where a version of the original painting is displayed. I love that. :)

This is a mixed media piece consisting of giclée print on heavyweight matte 308gsm Hahnemuhle Photo Rag paper, which has then been painted over with watercolours, pencils and varnished. Supplied framed and ready to hang.

Materials used:

Giclée inks, watercolours, old photos.

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