The Devils Footprints At Super Snow Moon

The Super Snow Moon was the largest of 2019’s Super Moons. Named by the ancients as ‘Snow Moon’ both in Europe and by Native American tribes since February was traditionally the time of year when snowfall was at is heaviest. In this painting I have also depicted the incredible February snow-related Devon folk legend of the ‘Devil’s Footprints’ where in February 1855, after a bout of heavy snowfall, locals of the Exe Estuary in East and South Devon woke to trails of cloven hoof tracks that covered a distance of 40 to 100 miles. They defied scientific logic for the strange meandering single file patterns that were left in the snow. What also baffled locals was that whatever unidentifiable creature they were made by had a supernatural gift, that enabled it to walk straight over rivers, haystacks, snow covered roofs and a wide array of obstacles that would have stopped any known native living animal in its tracks. Due to the inexplicable nature of the hoof marks, locals feared the worst and soon declared the tracks to be the marks of the ‘Cloven Hooves of Satan himself’ and for some time after avoided venturing from their homes past midnight. The story was picked up by the press and became a nationwide phenomenon.