The Hare of Wistman’s Woods

Original acrylic on canvas by Kelly Stevens-McLaughlan.

W70xH100cm

2cm white tray frame

£75 per month over ten months with OWN ART

Among the twisted oaks of Wistman’s Wood, where moss hangs thick as memory and the air smells of rain and stone, a lone hare keeps silent watch.  Some say it was born from the moor’s breath on a night when the mist rolled higher than the treetops.  A spirit creature, part earth, part starlight, bound to this ancient grove. Around it rise vast blue blooms and fern fronds the colour of faded parchment and shadowed sky, glowing softly in the half-light.  The hare moves through them like a whisper, unhurried, untouched by time. At night, when the moor begins to stir and the old tales wake, the Wisht Hounds are said to run across the high ground; their cries carried on the wind that rattles the oak leaves.  Yet the hare does not flee. It stands, listening, as though it alone remembers the truth: that even the hounds bow to older powers rooted deep beneath the moss and granite. Those who glimpse the hare in the mist speak of a strange stillness that follows, a feeling that the wood itself has paused to breathe.  They say it is a good omen, a reminder that the heart of Dartmoor still beats in secret, beneath the watchful eye of its quiet guardian.