Watercolour Painting of Bisclavret

For this final project, I created a painting based on my personal interpretation of Bisclavret. I utilized watercolours as those types of paints were used during the Medieval period and their usage was quite common, which made the connection between this painting and the text. My interpretative painting demonstrated my understanding of the juxtaposition between the baron and his alternate identity as the wolf. There is a troubling balancing act here as he feels the burden of being a noble and chivalric man, while also fearing the transformation into a wolf. There is an overarching fear that influences his actions and behaviours, the wolf identity is something dark and secretive that he attempts to hide. Hence the differentiation in colour, the wolf portion utilizes dark paints and colour palette whereas the baron has a colourful landscape to iterate his connection to nature while maintaining his identity as a man with the overarching fear of transforming into a wolf. The process of creating this art piece required some research as well as a long process of sketching to decide how I wanted to implement the juxtaposition with man versus nature. The mirror represents the reflection of two identities but also interconnects to a man-made object's position within nature. Thus, this project reflects the troubling burden that the baron is faced with in attempting to balance both his identities while facing an immense amount of fear while also demonstrating the juxtaposition between man versus nature.

Nayla Mithani