goddess painting of the day: Iduna

This painting of Iduna was originally created for a book that has yet to come to fruition — maybe one day. But I liked it so much that I decided to include it in the new edition of The Book of Goddesses.

Here’s some information about this lovely goddess. The Norse honored Iduna as the goddess responsible for growing apples, which were eaten by the gods and goddesses to retain their youth and beauty. Iduna grew the golden apples of immortality in her enchanted western garden named Appleland; in the stories of King Arthur, Appleland was called Avalon—the idyllic country of immortal life. Iduna was renowned for her youthful beauty, and was married to Bragi, the handsome god of poetry.

This painting was created with watercolors, gouache, powdered pigments, and even a bit of oil paint — it was a complicated and experimental effort, in other words. Basically, I was trying to see how far I could push my technique. BTW, the runic alphabet at the top of the border spells out phonetically “Iduna Goddess.”

 

It also graced the cover of the catalog  for my recent exhibition at the New York Open Center. If you’re interested, copies of the book are available for purchase; e-mail me your receipt and I’ll even send you an autographed bookplate.

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