PRESELI MARE.
"Mor Rhydd a r Dydd y'm Ganed"
Image size = 14.0" x 19.5"
Price = £200 unframed, £250 framed.
Edition size = 150.
This etching came about after an encounter whilst driving along the main road that goes up over the local Preseli Hills. There are a number of semi wild herds of ponies inhabiting the hills... as well as some Kamikazie sheep... but thats another story.
Usually encounters with them are very random as they roam about..If you set out to see them you can never find them or they are specks on the opposite hillside to you and melt away if you show any sign of heading towards them.
This mare was boldly standing by the side of the road and there being no other traffic I slowed down to take a photograph. A few moments later an entire herd of ponies emerged from the rocks around her and crossed the road in front of me. All colours all ages.. males..mares and about half a dozen leggy young foals.. it looked like a migration.
Finally ... after the last one had crossed this one dropped its head..shook it and then walked slowly across the road and followed the others. They were all too soon lost to view amongst the boulders and long grass as they moved down the slope away from the road..... I knew I had just seen something special.
The Welsh part of the title comes from a children's poem taught in schools about mountain ponies being taken from the hills to work down the mines. It was told to me by a retired headmaster in the village after he saw the first proof exhibited. Translated it says "Free as the day I was born"... which seemed appropriate.