The Rabbit Catcher

I don't know when my obsession with Sylvia Plath began exactly, but it was long before I chose this poem 'The Rabbit Catcher' to illustrate. I love her dark imagery and bitter words - and if I'm ever stuck for inspiration I can always get ideas from her poetry.

This illustration ties in nicely with the previous picture 'Crow and Doll', as I was inspired by the bleak, wintery environment of the sussex downs, abundant with teasles and old, woody brambles. 
An extract from 'The Rabbit Catcher':
'It was a place of force -
The wind gagging my mouth with my own blown hair,
Tearing off my voice, and the sea
Blinding me with its lights, the lives of the dead
Unreeling in it, spreading like oil . . .'

It's probably difficult to see from this small image, but in the background are lots of rabbit skeletons - a morbid 'Watership Down'!