Ilona Bayley David – Welsh Madonna

2019. Oil on Board. 97cm x 72cm

I was inspired to paint the Welsh Madonna as a tribute to the Welsh heroine Jemima Fawr (Jemima the Great) the wife of a Fishguard shoemaker. Jemima single handed captured twelve of the invading soldiers in the last invasion of Britain by the French that took place in 1797 in Fishguard Pembrokeshire, where I have lived for many years. In the painting the Madonna is wearing the traditional red shawl and making an offering of leeks.