New Work - Ruins of Whitby Abbey

I’ve been sketching a lot of ruins as I’ve been visiting them a lot recently (it’s something we enjoy exploring a lot as a family). They combine a lot of what I’m interested in with my work; they are a very visual symbol of human creation, usually battling against nature, often used as a metaphor for the passing of time and almost always come with stories and folklore attached. With Halloween coming up and, with its gothic connections, I’ve been wanting to do something with Whitby Abbey. After several sketches, and with the help of my Instagram audience, I finally found the angle I was happy with. I initially thought this would be a painting, more abstracted and taking cues from my Sakura and Defrost work. However, inspired once again by its gothic connections, I decided it would be better suited to the style of my story illustrations and framed in the context of Bram Stoker’s Dracula…

"There was a bright full moon, with heavy black, driving clouds, which threw the whole scene into a fleeting diorama of light and shade as they sailed across. For a moment or two I could see nothing, as the shadow of a cloud obscured St. Mary's Church and all around it. Then as the cloud passed I could see the ruins of the abbey coming into view, and as the edge of a narrow band of light as sharp as a sword-cut moved along, the church and churchyard became gradually visible. Whatever my expectation was, it was not disappointed, for there, on our favourite seat, the silver light of the moon struck a half-reclining figure, snowy white. The coming of the cloud was too quick for me to see much, for shadow shut down on light almost immediately, but it seemed to me as though something dark stood behind the seat where the white figure shone, and bent over it. What it was, whether man or beast, I could not tell."

The signed print is available to purchase in A4 size from my website here.