Happy New Year, 2021!
January's black and white and red
Deadlines, applications, accounts not done
Think of the tropics instead
Death and taxes are for sure
But so are maths and seasons
Spring's on its way, our calendars say
Read on to find the reason...
...January feels like a very white month, hence the contents of this email. I love painting with opaque white paint; it feels pristine like snow and ready for anything like a blank canvas. Start anew and again with some black ink on white paper. This is a creamy painting I'm making. It's an old antique heirloom Chinese ivory baby rattle. I'm not letting my kids anywhere near that rattle until they have the requisite motor skills ...…and judging by this wonderfully exuberant rendition of winter flowers, one has a way to go yet (I helped with the tree). They look like they're on fire! I don't blame him, it's so cold…
… and I don't do very well in midwinter (here's my version of the above). However, there is a festival to help with midwinter blues. It's less known nowadays, even in China where it originated. It's the Dongzhi festival, or the Nine Nines of winter. There are several traditions associated with it; I'll focus on the painting ones here. How nice to celebrate with paintings! I'm incorporating this unusual tradition into my 1001 artworks. Essentially it's a painted calendar marking 81 days (9 x 9) counting down from the winter solstice (Dec 21, when we started) until spring, which is marked by the Spring Festival (aka Chinese New Year). Like a painted Advent calendar, except for Spring and one that you make yourself. Each set of nines is characterised by a different coldness (ice, snow, skating, cold hands, visible breath) eventually giving way to signs of spring (ice melting, river flowing again, first signs of life after winter hibernation)...
…and a beautiful way to mark it is to paint 9 flowers on a tree. Each flower has 9 petals. You paint 1 petal per day, and once you've painted 81 petals - once 81 days have passed - it will be Spring Festival and winter will be over (yippee!). This is my midwinter therapy as well as homeschool for my son, a lesson in patience, nature, the changing of the seasons, marking time and basic maths and counting.
There are other traditional calendars. We are also completing a calligraphy calendar of 9 Chinese characters each made up of 9 strokes. He's having fun with that one and is certainly nowhere near being ready to write (when he can write, it will indicate to me that he has the requisite motor skills to pick up that rattle!). Honing fine motor skills takes time and I'm not rushing it. Black ink certainly makes its permanent mark and I'm intent on keeping it on the paper as far as possible! We are taking it very slo-o-o-owly, pretending we have all the time in the world, just like this dervish…
…the same slow, methodical, meditative speed it takes to paint a face. Maybe the dervish was in lockdown too (self-imposed exile?) His face is a work in progress, done with brown walnut ink; a black Chinese ink version is also in progress. When I teach we go very very slowly and analyse almost every brush stroke - that's what it takes to make a face, since we humans can see instantly if a line is off. Every single line has to be accurate, in proportion and in the right place, done at the right time. I can't wait to paint his beard...
…nor can I wait to paint his hair. Look at that sideburn curl! This is a Mughal face. More Masterclasses in painting Faces at https://www.vaishaliprazmariteaching.com as well as a Historical and Theory course in Traditional Painting Theory and Techniques. I try to share elements of the historical background and context during my practical classes but there's never enough time! So I'm excited to share this dedicated image-rich course solely devoted to the contextual side of this fascinating world of painting. I did a History Masters degree at UCL in Medieval and Renaissance Studies after art school - I am that interested in the past and motivated to immerse my children in it too, starting with children's books such as the one below. It's vitally important to have a background knowledge of this world in order to dive deep instead of only skimming the surface. Next up in the Faces Masterclass series is that magnificent Mughal noble…
History and context is important - book a Theory Course here
…those nobles, indeed. Sultans and shahs and emperors and patrons and painters and murderers... all were intimately interconnected in the world of miniature painting. We're reading My Name is Red by Orhan Pamuk, and will discuss one chapter at each of our miniature monthly meetings, starting with 'I Am A Corpse', the first chapter, for our January meeting. Do join us! It's on Wed 20 Jan, 6-7pm GMT and the Zoom link is on the forum at www.miniaturepaintingforum.com We'll also discuss one individual's artwork at the meeting, as well as general chat about all things miniature...
…and my love of all things miniature and tiny and things-stuffed-inside-other-things in the manner of the stories of the 1001 Nights extends to food, too (albeit in BIG adult proportions). My eldest miniature helped me cook these spinach dumplings (stuffed with spinach and served with spinach, some pan-fried in butter, some in a vegetable broth) to mark the new year on January 1st, a tradition I've been quietly cultivating by myself for a few years. We'll make amateur dumplings again for Chinese New Year and by the time I'm 81, I'll be a pro.
Tropically yours,
Vaishali Prazmari