The Golden Woman of Kupala was originally titled ‘Inside Outside’. Cecile then became aware of Russian Mythology and Kupala Night which is a folk holiday celebrating the summer solstice. Cecile resonated with the idea of Kupala as the goddess of water and the symbolism of water as regeneration. She was thinking of how water connects us to each other and the environment.

The screen print is composed of 11 layers, in her notebook Cecile writes “the colour form and transitions are amazingly complicated. But the result is so simple.” 

The composition may appear simple however Cecile’s statement confirms the deeper philosophical and spiritual influences behind the piece: 

“This is to do with being and stillness, a radiation from the centre and the kind of transcendence which expands the spirit. The outside goes on with the movement of active life while the centre expands and at the same time becomes one with the outside from a still level of consciousness. When there is an extended knowledge or awareness of this state there is a feeling of ‘well being’. I want this work to induce or share in this state and to feel this possibility or remember it.

These special moments of consciousness are seldom experienced in life today with the pressures of everyday existence. The possibility of feeling this is enhanced by the relationships with environment (ecology), the people closest to us (family) and most of all from our real connection with ourselves. 

…There are elements of the prodigal, the need to retreat into oneself, to go back to the beginning in order to meet with wholeness. This is when all one's parts work together - all senses, faculties and physically as well. Past and future meet when the whole works together, we are whole and celebration of this being takes on the rounded shapes of inner nature - everything which is not man made is round, except the rays of the sun and geometry which is nature and also part of the nature of [the] mind. 

It is impossible to say this in words, so I try to make it visually.”

By Molly Goulding, studio curator, August 2026