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Martin Herbert : "How the Dragons Discovered Wales" : Digital Painting : 11.5" x 15" (292 x 381 mm) : 2005

Giclee print on fine art paper, 18" x 24", signed & numbered (limited edition of 50): £150 Giclee print on fine art paper, 11.5" x 15", open edition: £35 Mini print, mounted to fit 10" x 12" frame, open edition: £15 Greetings card 5" x 7": £2 When you have finished shopping:

One of a series of works depicting 'totem animals' and their relationship with the external and internal landscape. These paintings are not drawn from one particular tradition - they incorporate elements of Celtic, Native American, Australian Aboriginal and other belief systems which have as a linking factor the close relationship between man and the natural environment. In Celtic mythology, the appearance of dragons often symbolised strife, conflict, or disaster. The Druids regarded the world as represented by the body of a dragon. Both the Celts and the Chinese regarded dragons as 'spirits of place' (genius loci) - any particularly impressive mountain, rock formation, or waterfall might have its own guardian dragon spirit. Ley lines are also known as 'dragon paths'. Nennius' 'Historia Brittonum' (c. 800AD) relates the story of the red and white dragons battling under the earth at the site of the fortress of Vortigern in Snowdonia - the red dragon eventually triumphant, symbolising the conflict between the native Britons and the invading Saxons. This started the association of the red dragon with Wales which was formalised by the Tudor ancestors of Henry VIII when they adopted it as their standard. Nowadays, it still represents conflict between the native Welsh and the invading English - like myself! I figured the dragons must have originally found Wales somehow - how else than by following the rainbow?