Haul Ar Nos Hir

Inside the image.

A square, subdued photographic cover shows a woman standing close to a broad tree trunk on the right, with a dark dog in the lower-left foreground. The woman is slightly right of centre and nearly full height, leaning her back or shoulder against the tree. She wears a long, dark, loose-fitting coat or dress that blends into the shadows. Her pale face is turned towards the viewer; dark hair frames it, and a light area around her head may be a hat or part of the image, though its shape is indistinct. The dog faces forward with its head lowered, its dark body extending back towards the centre of the image.

The rough, deeply ridged bark fills the right edge and upper-right corner, forming a strong vertical border beside the woman. To the left, the scene opens onto a pale, blurred landscape: a low, uneven bank or wall runs across the middle distance, above a narrow strip of water or wet ground. The foreground is dark and indistinct beneath the dog and the woman's feet. The figures and tree occupy the right half, while the softer, emptier landscape gives the left side more visual space. The image has no separate frame or border.

The palette is muted and nearly monochrome, with mossy grey-green, brown, charcoal and black, and pale grey highlights in the landscape and lettering. The woman's face and the ground behind her are brighter than her clothing and the dog. The tree bark is warm brown and sharply textured against the diffuse background. The photograph has a soft, hazy quality overall, with noticeable contrast between the crisp bark and the less defined landscape; the dark figures merge in places with the shadowed foreground.

Pale lettering sits over the image in two places. ‘Gillian Elisa’ appears across the upper-left area in widely spaced, slender serif letters, with the initial letters capitalised. The lower-right inscription reads ‘haul ar nos hir’ in smaller, similarly spaced pale letters, just above the bottom edge. Both lines are laid over the photograph without a backing panel. The cover is photographic, with a subdued, somewhat softened tonal treatment.