Here’s the fist stage in a drawing I made yesterday. I was taking further the idea that if Medea had been able to come back to herself things may have played themselves out differently. Ovid talks at considerable length in the early part of Book 7 in his ‘Metamorphosis’ about how she tried to ‘unlove’ Jason ,which suggests some level of self-awareness on her part at just how dangerous this kind of obsessive love can be. However, as soon as she saw him again she fell for him all over again. Ovid barely mentions that she killed her sons but explores the nature of her love for Jason at great length. It all comes back to what is going on inside Medea.

Here’s the drawing further along with the cooling turquoise border that has a sea-like quality. I love the strength of the marks I can get with the pastel pencils. They don’t disintegrate when I apply pressure unlike normal pastels. The zig-zags near her heart almost suggest a heart monitor. These made themselves, I wasn’t consciously intending this, it was only afterwards that I saw it.

Here’s the first stage of a drawing I made yesterday which I’m calling ‘Medea hold your heart’. The idea came to me after thinking about  turning points in her story and her decision making. I tried to bring in a softening in the hand as it holds her own heart. It is this ability to love herself as a complete person in her own right that seemed to be missing in her obsession with Jason, to the extent she could not even see the beauty in the lives of her own children. They became pawns in some monstrous game that would never work.

This section show the ‘Fleece-like’ curls and vegatation in the drawing in more detail.

A few more marks hae been added to the ‘Thicket’ in the centre.

Here’s the next stage in this drawing. I am adding more colour to the fleece-like spirals and to the ‘Thicket’ in the centre.