I kbnnow I've been quiet of late, but not entirely idle. I have been working on the "Goblin Market" series which 'Ill posrt here when its complete (or if you want a preview have a look at my Renderosity gallery), but in the meantime here's a portrait I first attempted a while ago but scrapped as it was lifeless. Coming back to it with fresh eyes after many months, this version is altogether better I think....
Æthelflæd, Lady of the Mercians, was the eldest daughter of Alfred the Great, king of Wessex and a scholar as well as military leader. With her husband Æthelred, and later with her brother King Edward the Elder, she was responsible for pushing the vikings out of large parts of England. The Norman historian William of Malmesbury described her as "a woman of enlarged soul".
One of the stories told of her is how she arranged for the return of the remains of the royal Northumbrian saint, Oswald, from Lindisfarne so I've placed the Lindisfarne Gospels one of the gretest illuminated manuscripts of the Saxon era, on her lectern,. « Less
