St. Gobnait

St. Gobnait was an Irish abbess of the sixth century. She founded her abbey on a spot revealed to her by the miraculous presence of nine white deer. She is the patron saint of beekeeping; the bees keps by her nuns once saved the abbey by attacking a band of marauders. I included nine white deer, four honeybees and a hive in this drawing.

I drew mostly in the style of early medieval Gospel manuscripts from Ireland. I also borrowed some details from Harry Clarke’s depictons of this saint. The idea of placing the cats within the capital letter I got from Kuniyoshi, who used cats to spell out words in a series of prints.

Visit this web page to read my full description of this drawing. A giclée print of it can be purchased there for $20.