My latest works are inspired by fairytales from around the world.
Digital painting printed on fabric.
Title: The Deamon, the Woman and the Bird – african fairy tale from Senegal.
This is a drawing I created on my phone and it depicts the story of a man in a far off land who goes in search of a wife but couldn’t find the right partner. One day he took his horse for a ride and met a wise old man. The old man told him to go into the woods where he would find a lemon tree with three lemons and told him to pick them and see what happens.
So the man picked the lemons and began to peel one of them. Suddenly a beautiful woman appeared in the clearing who asked him to give her some bread and a tobacco leaf. The man said he didn’t have any and the woman disappeared.
The man peeled the second lemon and the same happened again; a beautiful woman appeared who asked for some bread and a tobacco leaf and again the man said he didn’t have any and she disappeared.
The next time he went and found some bread and a tobacco leaf and returned and peeled the third lemon. This time a beautiful woman appeared and when she asked for the same things, he was able to offer her the gifts and because of this she agreed to be his wife.
The man built a beautiful house for her with a view of the sea. They were very happy and she eventually had a baby son. The man soon decided they would return to his country and he would introduce her and their son to his family. He asked her to wait for him and he would prepare everything for their arrival and off he went.
One day the woman was drawing water from a spring when a she devil saw her. The she devil was very jealous of the woman’s beauty. The she devil approached the woman and told her she would like to weave her hair to make her even more beautiful and the woman agreed but the she devil tricked her and pricked her head with a needle and no sooner had she done this, the woman turned into a bird.
When the man returned he was shocked to find how old and ugly his wife had become. The she devil said that “all women lose their beauty when no body cares about us.”
The man was sad but took the she devil and his son to his country. As they travelled, a beautiful bird looked after the child when the she devil didn’t.
When they arrived at his home, the she devil asked the man to kill the bird. She wanted to the feathers to become beautiful again. But when the man caught the bird, the needle slipped out and his beautiful wife appeared before him. They hugged each other and seeing this the she devil flew into a rage and turned to dust.
The man, his wife and son lived happily ever after.
In this painting, I depicted the three women at the start of the story with the tobacco leaf and loaf of bread, the lemon tree, the bird and the she devil facing the woman.
Alice Lenkiewicz 