Roman Košťál - The Witch Elm

The painting depicts a real-life location, immortalized by Košťál in melancholic shades of gray where light and shadow merge into one. The subject is inspired by the plot of the horror film The Wicker Man, which features pagan motifs. At the same time, the work references the mysterious graffiti "Who put Bella in the Wych Elm?"—a phrase tied to the discovery of a woman’s skeleton inside a tree in England’s Worcestershire county.