Here’s the piece complete and with an apple to get a sense of scale. Apologies about the quality of the image, you don’t get the definition of the mark making with the camera that I’ve got when you pull back from it which I had to do because of the scale! That’s why I’ve shared the close-ups.

This motif was a long time coming. At first I wanted to leave the central area blank or just clouds and sky to make it universal. However, Nicky from Artipeeps on Twitter who gave me this opportunity, suggested a universal central motif might work. I let this mergle away with me. Then I remembered the yellow flower, not sure what they’re called, that came from Charlie who is also collaborating on this Ovid Metamorphosis project too. He posted a wonderful photo of one that I loved. I found the same flower on a walk to our local Brungerley park.  I drew it into the border on this giant oil pastel. It occurred to me that flower represents so much, and that had the universal quality that I was looking for.

I started this very large drawing today and am really enjoying it. It seems like a very positive piece somehow after all the dark aspects of the human physche that I’ve been exploring. This comes from the children, always the children. The golden fleece was meant to protect children in the first instance. They are our treasure, our gold.

Here you can see the sketch in close-up and the marks and colours in mork detail. I was layering the pastel and pencil quite vigorously to search for the effect I wanted. I looked at some images of Picasso dead children for inspiration from a painting that I made a copy of once, ‘The Rape of the Sabine’ which I saw in London in 2010. You can learn a lot through copying a master like this. His work is complex but appears effortless.

Here’s a sketch I made in oil pastel on Friday which I’m calling ‘Safe Now’. the hand in the corner is not Medea’s but that of the nurse. She protected the children as far as she could in Euripedes’ play and tried to change Medea’s mindset but to no avail. When I watched a production of Medea online it was the nurse’s words that stayed with me for a previous drawing when she asked,’What does it make you?’ and Medea answered, ‘ What I am, defeated’.

Here I am showing you the drawing with an apple to give a sense of the scale. I did it in one sitting and forgot to take photos of the stages as I was so into the work. It would have broken the flow. I’m obviously channeling the moment in the story where Jason is told the news about his sons. Who is telling him is irrelevant.