A ritualistic painting rendered in warm pinks and browns: a dark-haired woman stands with both arms raised overhead, gripping the handles of what appear to be smoking cauldrons or censers suspended above her, an ornate gold torc at her throat, a sword strapped at her hip, while a small hunched figure watches from the shadows below. The pose, arms lifted, head tilted back, eyes closed, reads clearly as ritual or invocation rather than combat, and the warm, almost sunset-toned palette gives the scene a ceremonial, sacred quality distinct from the harsher lighting Bisley used for most of his battle scenes. This kind of priestess or sorceress figure recurs across Bisley's broader body of Celtic and mythological fantasy work, closely tied in spirit to the Earth Goddess worship and druidic ritual that runs through Pat Mills' Sláine, even when a specific piece isn't tied directly to that strip's continuity. The smoking cauldrons in particular echo the Cauldron of Blood, a recurring, plot-critical artifact within the Sláine mythos, a magical source of power and regeneration the tribes fight over constantly, suggesting this image may be drawing directly on that same well of Celtic myth and magic Mills built the series around, even if this specific painting exists somewhat apart from the ongoing weekly strip. Bisley's decorative rendering of the gold jewelry and the ceremonial staging both carry a Klimt-like attention to ornament that shows up periodically throughout his more mystical or ritual-themed pieces.
Simon Bisley draws a dark haired female sorceress
