The Snow Queen
The Story of The Fairytale
The Snow Queenis based on the folklore tale by Hans Christian Anderson in which an enchanted mirror has been cursed by an evil troll so that anyone who looks within it only sees the bad and ugliness. The antagonist tries to carry the mirror to heaven to try and bewitch the angels, but the mirror slips out of his hands and falls to earth shattering into millions of pieces. Humanity is engulfed by the dust of the mirror, and many are put into a dark spell.
Years later, young children Kay and Gerda are playing together, and small shards of the mirror get into Kay’s eyes and heart. The only thing to appear beautiful to him are snowflakes dancing in the sky during the winter; after the flurry Kay sneaks out to follow the Snow Queen who is sleighing through the town. She takes him back to her palace, kissing him once to numb him from the cold, a second time to make him forget his family and Gerda. Gerda is heartbroken and searches for Kay tirelessly, before entering the Snow Queens domain. She cries with relief when she finds him almost frozen, and her warm tears of love dislodge the mirror shards from him eyes and he is finally happy once again.
Production
Where the magic happens. Kerry's auspicious studio has been the birth place of her most recent Folklore addition, The Snow Queen. As Kerry starts with a primed wooden board cut to the large size of the piece, she then proceeds to draw on the main elements from the story-line, showcasing the moral reasoning behind the classical story and then paint in some background colour. Kerry note's that there is always a plan to this background layer and it is the most critical time of the painting simply because she needs to have a good idea of which colours will be applied upon the next layer, and the detailed elements that follow.
Location
The Snow Queenwas influenced by Kerry's wanderings across the rugged Welsh coastline, it made sense to film her in the process of gaining inspiration in the atmospheric wintry conditions before heading to her home studio and taking up the brush! The derelict lighthouse that features in this video is a favourite spot for Kerry to look out of her beloved landscape and dream: we really hope you enjoy the result of her enigmatic imagination.
