Above; Sutton Hoo Series. Trace. Oil on 27×27 inch canvas. Rose Strang 2021.

This series takes inspiration from the landscape surrounding Sutton Hoo in Suffolk. More about the inspiration and story behind the paintings can be explored below (after the paintings).

If you’re interested in these paintings, or would like to reserve or buy one, please contact the Limetree Gallery. The series will be on exhibition at the Limetree Gallery, Long Melfrod, Suffolk, from August 2021

The Sutton Hoo Series

In my last posts (1, 2, and 3,) I explored a bit more about Anglo Saxon cultures and beliefs – in particular their ritual burying of treasure in mounds. I was intrigued by the poem of Beowulf with its mention of dragons guarding wealth.

It seems that dragons, whatever else they might have been, were always associated in myth with wealth and greed. Dragons in literature appear to represent an aspect of our own capacity to hoard – to hold on to the material things of life for our own pleasure, rather than sharing wealth with others.

Tim Flight (a historian and literary critic specialising in Anglo-Saxon England) speculates that because Christian religious leaders of the 6th century refered often to the concept of the coming apocalypse, this may have been one reason why Anglo Saxons of the time equated the stone-built Roman ruins which littered the landscape of Britain, with a sense of approaching doom.

For Anglo Saxons these crumbling grandiose, monumental ruins suggested the inevitable fall following pride. They prefered to work with natural materials such as wood, on a smaller scale – structures that rotted back into the earth and left little trace.

Their philosophy also embraced the idea of ephemerality of life; we’re here for a short time so we must seek meaning and act wisely – hoarding wealth might lead to our downfall.

Stories of dragons guarding wealth abound in Anglo Saxon poetry. The dragon is roused to anger and vengeance when anyone dares to steal from its hoard. Maybe this is why Anglo Saxon riches were buried in the earth – to return to earth what was made or taken from it, just as our bodies return to earth. I’m speculating now of course, since we can’t know what these cultures thought – we just have clues from the poetry and stories they wrote and the few traces they left.

I wanted to reflect on some of the ideas I’ve explored during this series in my largest and final painting. I was most interested in the sacred places they worshiped – not in buildings but in the landscape; trees, rivers, sea and springs – spaces thought of as liminal. Places where it was believed there was a thin veil between heaven and earth where a person might connect with gods (or later, the Christian God once Christianity took hold).

What could symbolise ephemerality more than water? It reflects a reality that isn’t real. It’s ever changing and, at least to our naked eye, it leaves no trace of passage other than fading ripples or sediment in the wake of humans moving through it.

I called my final painting ‘Trace, River Deben’. for that reason. The ripple on the surface might be left by anything – boat, bird, fish or rain yet – leave not a rack behind to quote the Bard!

We know now through scientific explorations that varying different energy forms change the structure of water, and there is the concept of water holding memories.

If you’re interested in this series and would like to see the paintings in person, they’ll be on exhibition at Limetree Gallery, Long Melford, Suffolk, from August this year. Or if you’d like to reserve or buy one of the paintings, you can contact The Limetree Gallery on their webpage – Limetree Gallery.