A renowned portrait artist, based on the island, has breathed new life in to an ancient Manx ballad.

Beth Louella put her creative energies and spare time to good use during the lockdown period by creating a series of stunning portraits to accompany the epic traditional Manx ballad ’An Account of the Isle of Man in Song’, which is the oldest known piece of writing in Manx and stems from the late 15th century.

Inspired by both the age-old text and the current events Beth created a series of images which follows the narrative of the poem, which tells the story of the Manx god Manannan, the arrival of St Patrick and the conversion of St Maughold, the coming of King Orry and the flight of the Viking Princess Affreca.

The pieces are black and white and depict each character as younger figures than they are usually seen in artistic depictions.

’What I read when I looked through the poem for the first time really jumped out at me,’ said Beth, who works as a fine artist and holds a degree in visual communication.

’I created these images during the lockdown, with the fear of the coronavirus hanging over our heads, and I wanted to reflect these times in the pictures.

’In the first panel, I made Manannan look quite calm and peaceful, almost a reassuring protector figure whereas you often see him being portrayed as quite a fierce character.’

The next two panels feature St Patrick, dressed in flawless white, using a scallop shell to baptise St Maughold, who is seen with tattoos and brash clothes, to reflect his past life as a pirate.

The third panel features the fabled Viking King Orry, who created a ruling dynasty on the island, but perhaps the most striking panel depicts the princess Affreca, last descendent of the Crovan dynasty, who was forced to flee after she fought against the island being misruled by a foreign power.

’The Manx legends are mostly based around men and I wanted to focus on the involvement of a woman in the island’s history,’ said Beth.

’Affreca was forced to leave the island, somewhere she passionately defended, so I included a lot of Manx imagery with her picture, probably more than any of the others. She is pictured with cushag plants and three legs symbols.

The final panel in the series is based around a line in the ballad which said ’Take heart and cast out despair’.

Beth thought it was a fitting theme to reflect on the times of worry fear that gripped the island during the early days of the global pandemic.

’That part of the ballad is not necessarily about any specific character, so I chose to depict a generic person holding a Manx cat for comfort.

’I wanted a really good and positive message to focus on.’

The series of images was commissioned by Culture Vannin as part of its successful Treisht project of funding artists during the lockdown period.

’I was using my free time to experiment with a few things before I found out about the Treisht programme,’ said Beth.

’I think it is a terrific idea and I was very grateful to be selected for it.

by Mike Wade

Twitter:@iomnewspapers