Monthly Archives: January 2024

Crusader’s tomb day two

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Above – Return. Oil on 7×5″ wood. Rose Strang 2024

I’m starting to get a feel for this series, which is beginning to take me out of my comfort zone and into the realms of the abstract!

Countless times I’ve enjoyed painting freely and expressively, only to over-work the subject. I imagine this is a common experience among artists who feel pressured to create a consistent body of work, or a piece that looks as though it’s been worked on in the conventional sense, and is therefore worthwhile or sellable.

I think this series means more than that to me though. The questions is – why would I care about the remains of a Crusader’s tomb? It might seem like a deep dive into the past or an avoidance of present day reality, and that would be true in many ways. I think that creatively addressing a theme such as war is too overwhelming from a personal or more subjective perspective, at first.

These are some of the paintings I’ve been working on that resonate with me. I can see a direction where this series of paintings might progress.

It looks pretty disparate at the moment! I can see though how these themes can begin to merge.

In the last post I mentioned that I’m ‘living and breathing’ (or literally breathing at least!) 13th century culture by learning some songs from the period. It’s interesting how tuning into art from different times shows us parallels in experience from then and now.

More about the Crusades in the next post, but in the meantime, here’s a link to a beautiful song I’m learning from the 12th century by Richard the 1st, or Cœur de Lion as he was known, famous for his part in the Crusades. Whatever we think of him, we can probably all agree that he wrote beautiful music. He was trained in music composition from a young age, but some people just have talent!

There are many different versions and arrangements, but this is my favourite…

Crusader’s Tomb

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Above: Crusader’s Tomb 1. Oil on 14×11″ wood. Rose Strang 2024

I’ve been working on a few sketches of an effigy in the remains of a Carmelite Friary at Aberlady. The painting above (and below so you can click on it) is the first in a series I’ll be creating this year.

In my last post ‘Start to the year …’ I wrote about what draws me to this particular area. At the heart of my fascination is the crusader’s tomb (featured in the painting above) near Aberlady. It’s quite a difficult place to find and I won’t divulge any secrets about where (publicly anyway!) as I think it’s a sacred, or at least special place.

Despite the fact I’ve been visiting the area since I was a girl, I only discovered the crusader’s tomb in 2021 when I stayed in Aberlady during lockdown. We were astonished to find this fragment of medieval history – the stone effigy of a knight – exposed to the elements. I wondered why it hadn’t been destroyed in the 16th century along with the rest of the Carmelite Friary to which it was attached.

Fragments often remain, but this corner of the friary was left almost untouched, while around it only the foundations and traces of buttresses remained. It seemed like some remnant of forgoten legend so of course my imagination was inspired!

There’s no information on the site, since this is not a public monument, so I searched online where I found contradictory information about the effigy. Some describe it as ‘Bickerton’s tomb’, while others suggest it’s the effigy of David de Lindsay, whose family owned nearby Luffness House in the 13th century. I’m convinced it’s the latter having met someone whose family has owned Luffness House over the last three hundred years, who told me the history of the effigy…

The Story of David de Lindsay.

In the last Crusades (which took place in the Holy Land between the 11th century to early 14th century) David de Lindsay took part and became ill (though apparently not through wounds). He was tended to by monks at a nearby Carmelite Monastery. The Carmelites established their first monastery in the Middle East at Mount Carmel in around 1220 or earlier, so when they tended David de Lindsay it would have been in very early days of the Order.

When de Lindsay realised he didn’t have long to live, he asked the monks if they would send his remains back to his home in Luffness and they agreed. Perhaps this was on condition that de Lindsay set up a Carmelite Friary at Luffness near Aberlady. However the agreement came about, he left instructions and money for his family for a Carmelite Friary to be built near Luffness.

The first records we have of the Friary are (I think) in the late 1200’s, in accounts belonging to David de Lindsay’s son, which describe details of funds for the Carmelite friary at Luffness and instructions for these to be distributed to the poor. Patrons are honoured with a tomb and/or effigy near the altar of churches, and this particular effigy dates to the 1200’s and is placed in the patron’s position on the left of the altar. A shield and sword, held by the effigy are still discernable. It seems most likely it was David de Lindsey.

Today’s painting is the first of several preparatory pieces (you can explore the series as it develops on this link:

Works

I’m living and breathing 13th century culture at the moment – quite literally in the sense that I’m learning to sing some really beautiful 13th century songs!

More on that in my next post …

Start to the year …

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Above Aberlady Sketches 1. Oil on 5×7″ wood. Rose Strang 2024

A start to the year and a new project with this small, twilit painting of Aberlady.

It’s a project a long time in waiting. I was beginning to explore ideas back in early 2020 when the obvious event struck, causing a small panic about income, but then three painting commissions came at me from out of the blue and I’ve been busy ever since it seems.

The Village of Aberlady is not a place you’d describe as mysterious or dramatic, unless you knew it well. The first impression is of a very pretty, conventional village, perfect for the rich retirees. A train used to stop here but the railway was dismantled in the 1970’s. There are one or two shops, a couple of inns and a takeaway.

Aberlady Main Street

So why am I so obsessed with painting a series about my response to this place? Well, I’ll be painting and writing about ‘why’ for the rest of 2024!

The most obvious appeal, beyond the village itself, is of course the nature reserve that stretches across a mile or two of grassland and dunes to an expanse of glittering sand reaching far out to sea at low tide. It’s one of the very few places I’ll swim in Scotland. In August when the sea has become less cold and has flowed back in across the warm sand, bathing here in shallow water is almost bath-like. Plus there’s hardly anyone around since, compared to the amount of people at North Berwick further south along the coast, relatively few will walk the two miles to the sea. There are of course hundreds and thousands of birds, and deer, rabbits galore and any amount of other species I don’t know about.

Aberlady November 2016
Aberlady September 2021
Aberlady, June 2017
Aberlady August 2020

The appeal for most people visiting Aberlady these days is peace in nature. One thing that fascinates me though is the way places change in importance over several hundred years, depending on their function. Think of St Andrews in Fife, it was the ecclesiastical centre of Scotland hunreds of years ago. Now it’s known as the home of Scotland’s oldest university, and for its golf course. (also made more famous by the royal romance I suppose. I was attending post graduate art studies there at the same time as Will and Kate but never bumped into them, not quite moving in the same circles!) Or think of York, known now for its olde worlde timber-framed buildings and awe-inspiring York Minster – when in the past it was the centre of power in England.

Going farther back in time, Aberlady was a place that had to defend itself from violent attack, and going even further back to  the 7th century it was the last stop for pilgrims on their way from Iona to Lindisfarne.

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Beneath its pleasant exterior I find Aberlady to be a place of deep mystery and drama. It’s something you can’t see, but rather it’s something you feel after years of immersing yourself in its landscape and history.

Hence why I’ll be working towards a series of paintings this year to explore my fascination with Aberlefdi, as it was originally named – a mixture of Pictish aber meaning river mouth and Lef, the name of a Viking warrior whose remains are interred beneath Luffness House in Aberlady Bay. That’s just one little detail in the whole story though.

More to follow in the coming weeks as the light improves and I can really get into painting this series …

One of my Aberlady paintings from 2020: