Mab of Dreams

Mab of Dreams
Medium: Watercolors
Size: 17x12 inches
Prints & Original: -here-
Detail Closeups: -here-
Sketch: -here-

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The colors for this piece ended up being a surprise. I'd intended originally a rocky outcropping jutting into the dark blue night sky. Somewhere along the line that quickly changed instead into the dusky green of forest shadows. The initial intention of golden butterflies/dreams/souls took on a different aspect than I'd planned as well, with rich blue hues. I wanted to create in Mab, a creature of otherworld fae beauty; but beware and do not forget that she has a dark side, stark and icy, a masterful manipulator of man's deepest desires.

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Shakespeare - Mercutio in Romeo and Juliet, Act I, scene IV :

And in this state she gallops night by night
Through lovers’ brains, and then they dream of love;
O’er courtiers’ knees, that dream on court'sies straight,
O’er lawyers’ fingers, who straight dream on fees,
O’er ladies ‘ lips, who straight on kisses dream,
Which oft the angry Mab with blisters plagues,
Because their breaths with sweetmeats tainted are


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And Thomas Hood, "Queen Mab":

A little fairy comes at night,
Her eyes are blue, her hair is brown,
With silver spots upon her wings,
And from the moon she flutters down.

She has a little silver wand,
And when a good child goes to bed
She waves her wand from right to left,
And makes a circle round its head.

And then it dreams of pleasant things,
Of fountains filled with fairy fish,
And trees that bear delicious fruit,
And bow their branches at a wish;

Of arbors filled with dainty scents
From lovely flowers that never fade;
Bright flies that glitter in the sun,
And glow-worms shining in the shade.

And talking birds with gifted tongues,
For singing songs and telling tales,
And pretty dwarfs to show the way
Through fairy hills and fairy dales.

But when a bad child goes to bed,
From left to right she weaves her rings,
And then it dreams all through the night
Of only ugly horrid things!

Then lions come with glaring eyes,
And tigers growl, a dreadful noise,
And ogres draw their cruel knives,
To shed the blood of girls and boys.

Then stormy waves rush on to drown,
Or raging flames come scorching round,
Fierce dragons hover in the air,
And serpents crawl along the ground.

Then wicked children wake and weep,
And wish the long black gloom away;
But good ones love the dark, and find
The night as pleasant as the day.