Rhiannon's Labour, Portrait of Keelan Bailey [ 60" x 75" ] · Carbon pencil, blackening watercolours, and inks on paper mounted to canvas · [ 2019–2024 ]
The mask of blame, punishment, and graceful endurance.
This portrait reimagines the Welsh mythological Rhiannon—enduring unjust punishment, laboring through trials, yet embodying quiet strength and eventual vindication—through the real-life figure of Keelan Bailey. The sitter's gaze holds locked with the horse both vulnerability and resilience, emerging from layered shadows that evoke the burdens carried by their mutually roped fate, and the light that follows. Her son ( eyes blacked ) crawls toward her, beneath their labour, also fighting for his return, and the protection of his mother. The sparrow flys over her head a symbol- of the spiritual connection between mother and son.
Rhiannon's story of perseverance mirrors personal themes of betrayal, endurance, and rebirth: the blackening process strips away pretence, revealing the unmasked self beneath hardship. The work honors the subject's inner labour—transforming pain into quiet power—while questioning how myths live in modern lives.
Part of an ongoing series blending portraiture with mythological resonance—dark yet eternally optimistic in its affirmation of human endurance.
Dark yet hopeful
Studio view, or related works: blairaiken@raincage.com
Inspiration & Personal Connection
This painting draws inspiration from Leonardo da Vinci’s dynamic studies of horses, particularly *A Rider on a Rearing Horse* (c. 1503–1504). Leonardo’s powerful drawings capture the raw energy, grace, and tension of the animal in motion — the horse as both beautiful and untamed.
In my version, the horse and rider become Rhiannon’s Labour. The story of blame and unjust punishment for the death of her son, combined with the striking beauty of the horse and her strange, and mythical connection, drove me to paint this. I was deeply impressed by the model’s beauty and grace and felt she embodied Rhiannon — the figure carrying beauty, strength and burden, moving forward under the weight of judgment and expectation.
The blackening layers trace the slow accumulation of blame, endurance, and the complex bond between rider and horse — a meditation on how we are often punished for things beyond our control, yet still find grace and power in the act of continuing.
Through this work, I explore the tension between beauty and suffering, freedom and restraint, and the quiet dignity of carrying on when the world assigns fault.
Yet even in this moment of labour and judgment, a faint gleam persists — a quiet reminder that grace can exist within struggle, and that every burden carried may also become a source of strength and transformation, and ultimately vindication.
Dark yet hopeful.
Studio view, or related works: blairaiken@raincage.com
Dark yet hopeful.
*A Rider on a Rearing Horse* Leonardo da Vinci, c. 1503–1504