January Twenty Twenty Three
Slippers and scarves and oh dear me
The rising cost of energy
Time for candles, hot soup and warm tea
The Year of the Water Rabbit brings longevity
We're hoping for peace and prosperity
And over in the Land of Eternal Spring
In the Fortunate Isles, Paradise brings
Us isolarios, little maps and tiny small things
As the heavens turn and the seasons swing
More of these to come your way
With the miniature books that are here to stay...
...thinking about islands and edges and especially the cusped edges of the Ottoman maps of Piri Re'is. We think this is Sardinia. There are mountains in the middle and golden beaches...
...and this little Poison book marked the start of this year which is the Year of the Book for me. Slowly getting bigger than this but I wanted a challenge - the smallest book in which it is practicably possible to paint, turn the pages and enjoy viewing without a magnifying glass. All based on the A4 page, which if you fold it in half and half again and continue it preserves its proportions. It is the norm in the UK, Europe and Asia but not everywhere...
Page control: Download free Geometry of the Page resources here…
and for February's Architecture class we'll paint painters painting paintings and painting painters and each other and having a natter as they do so, painting a painting studio with rooms within rooms that lead off to other rooms (very 1001 Nights). Apparently they were close to a water source and fresh air, and they had someone either fanning them or providing shade, as well as curious onlookers...
Paint a Kitabkhana traditional atelier here
...that's at https://www.vaishaliprazmariteaching.com. I did a round-up of all my paintings last year, to gauge how many I had in progress and finished. I have around 200 paintings! And around a fifth of them are finished. Many are actually almost finished but I won't put them in the 'finished' pile until they have a margin or frame or until I feel they're done in some way. The partridge above is an almost finished one. Above is a finished little Chinese cloud that needs a margin...
...and this little sad man does have a border so he's done. Maybe he's sad because it's January and there are bills and taxes to pay and the rising costs of living are a general cause of melancholy in combination with cloudy weather and cold temperatures of midwinter...
...and also pointing to the right hand side is this Poison Strelizia plant. Related to the Bird of Paradise but on acid. Beneath is a real Bird of Paradise flower in bloom, which I saw for the first time, not in botanical gardens, but growing in the great outdoors naturally...
…and another little curiosity was this little butterfly (with wings folded like a moth so I'm not sure - it flew like a butterfly) with black and red spots I spent ages following and staring at...
…just as we'll spend ages looking and staring at other curious objects and natural oddities in the Tales series of classes at https://www.vaishaliprazmariteaching.com/book-online where we'll focus on a discrete item each time ...
Register for the inaugural TALES class
...I'm really happy that these new TALES classes commence in February! Borne from a desire to present a truly comprehensive picture of all miniature painting, and emerging from my latest ongoing research into the world of the 1001 Arabian Nights, these classes are like a cabinet of curiosities for miniature painting. The TALES classes comprise 3 strands: Objects and Ingenious Devices, Natural Marvels and Wonders and Characterless Characters. If, like me, you find stories and marvels irresistible, join me in painting a collection of marvels, wonders, everyday objects, theatrical devices, mechanical ingenuity, strangenesses and curios… in short, THINGS that are in stories and paintings and that are not easily defined as animal, vegetable or mineral. Cooking pots, cups and jugs; tables, takhts and thrones. From flags and bows and arrows and a multitude of tools to clever clocks, musical instruments and astrolabes, we cover them all. Humans have found wonder in the tiniest fleas and the wide open seas and the far flung stars (and now we’re going to Mars). See through the eyes of Sindbad and wonder at natural marvels that include composite creatures, giraffes and even a ginger cat. These things are the stuff of stories, the razm o bazm (fight and feast) of the Shahnameh and the magic everyday fabric that is the stock in trade of the Nights. The other stock in trade of the Nights is of course the people that populate them. Moving from faces to FIGURES: the stock characters, or ‘characterless characters’ as I describe them, are just that: 2D characters that represent an occupation or trade. Gossip and the guilds. People’s jobs define their surnames. The most beautiful of princesses, the basest of slaves. The vilest, the meanest, the cruellest; the most generous, the most princely and the most magnanimous. The most judging of judges and kingliest of kings. The Sailoriest of Sailors and the Merchantiest of Merchants. All clichés are here: the wicked vizier, the comely youth, the scheming wife, the long-suffering wife, the mother… the many varied and countless faces of womanhood that was Shahrazad’s master plan: show them all to Shahriyar and present a picture of all life to him so he sees the nuances and not only the extremes, and comes to completion through her stories. It’s winter so in many parts of the world we’ll need our indispensable slippers and scarves and maybe have the desire to remain in bed under draped blankets. Begin our drapery studies and design your own fantasy slippers! February is still cold!
...above is a tulip in progress from the Rachel's Flowers Oil on Copper class last year, and which will be repeated on my website to continue. The Oil on Copper series carries on with a class on the shells of Balthasar Van Der Ast over at the Princes Foundation School of Traditional Arts and when beach combing in the winter it's still possible to find unusual shells. I think that cone shell is one of the most poisonous shells in the world when alive by the way. Safer on paper (or copper)...
...and let's dream of warmer climes and beaches and islands and winter sun in winter grey. The Zoom link is via the Forum https://www.miniaturepaintingforum.com or here's the direct link:
Monthly Miniature Meeting 21.2.23, 6-7pm London time - all welcome FEBRUARY MEETING Vaishali Prazmari is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting. Topic: Vaishali Prazmari's Miniature Monthly Meeting 21.2.23 6-7pm London time Time: Feb 21, 2023 18:00 London Join Zoom Meeting https://us02web.zoom.us/j/86022443453?pwd=TWZCaHZZNm1mMDgzb20vT2dMd1VDUT09 Meeting ID: 860 2244 3453 Passcode: 478920 Join by Skype for Business https://us02web.zoom.us/skype/86022443453
...I think the end of January tentatively spells the end of postal strikes, Christmas and New Year backlog and clearing up any hacked systems - maybe! Maybe Royal Mail is working again and you can order brushes and tools as normal in February at https://www.theperfectbrush.co.uk/shop ...
More brushes and beautiful tools here
…Above was our first holiday since before 2019, and we really needed it! Fuerteventura in the Canary Islands. Black sand underneath, yellow sand blown in from the Sahara above creates remarkable natural marbling patterns. Kids loved exploring the dunes of course. It wasn't hot (it was a cheap getaway!) - it was warm, and I suppose what you'd expect from the Land of Eternal Spring. I was thinking about islands and island formations and edges. There were little pools created by the tide with raised bits of beach, and fish were swimming about around our feet. Winter-spring sun, 20 degrees. And cactuses - it is Paradise, or the Fortunate Isles as they were previously known, yet full of cacti! We really felt that we were off the coast of Africa, it was warm and dry. And very, very windy. Despite being on the Costa Calma, Fuerteventura does live up to its name - it is a haven for windsurfers.What to do when there is nothing to do? Paint, read and make toy theatres with the kids. So in a way, we could have just done these things at home ;-) - but at home it's not yet spring. So we need to stay warm...
...so eat soup! Here is my recipe for garlic soup. I don't have many recipes up my sleeve so there won't be many; enjoy this one and I'd be thrilled if you try it out and even more thrilled if you perfect it! Recipe for Garlic Soup, which is more like a Garlic Broth. Is good to have when you’ve got a cold or about to get a cold or generally under the weather and can’t tolerate too many solids: (Slovaks do it differently and use chicken stock! So I use vegetable stock) (And I’m not very good at all at writing recipes but I’ll have a go!) (Good to pass on to the kids in future anyway!) Vaishali’s Golden Garlic Soup
This is a [broth] version of traditional Slovak garlic soup cesnakova polievka, aka anti-people soup and even vampire repellent soup - soup for being alone Ingredients
2 garlic BULBS, not cloves - there is A LOT of garlic!! Knob of butter Fresh thyme or oregano, either/or. Fresh preferred but dry ok if necessary Vegetable stock, organic preferred, 1 cube (or liquid equivalent) Water A giant pot Parmesan cheese Old bread New bread Olive oil Salt to taste Freshly crushed black pepper
Maybe
Tiny pasta eg alphabet pasta Celery Carrot An egg
Method
Plop the knob of butter (25g?) into the giant cauldron. Grate all the garlic cloves from the 2 bulbs directly into the pot but save a pinch (1 teaspoon) for later. I always grate garlic as is just faster.
Fry the garlic on a medium heat, not high as it might burn, and keep stirring. And when it starts to go golden brown, add the stock and herbs (1 teaspoon ish) and keep frying. Retain some herbs for later (1 teaspoon ish).
Once it's all nicely browned, add the water. 1.5 to 2 litres, something like that. Cover and bring to the boil then turn down the heat and simmer for at least an hour.
This tastes better and richer the next day as the flavours will all have zhoomed together nicely. Or if is for a meal, then in the meantime, make croutons (optional). Cut the old bread into crouton cubes and fry in olive oil. Set aside.
When it’s tasty and ready to serve, add the last bits of herbs and grated garlic. It will all blend in anyway. Do it to taste. I don’t add salt as the stock and cheese already contain salt but people always complain there’s not enough salt, so, add to taste. Add freshly crushed black pepper if possible too.
When you actually serve, grate the Parmesan cheese (essential) over the top of each bowl. Serve with the fresh bread to dip. Of course if is for illness then omit the croutons and even less cheese, but a little cheese really is important.
It looks like a broth, so fairly thin, and golden yellow-greenish in colour. I think of it like a medicine. It is delicious and tastes really nice (to me - you’ve got to like garlic). When I first went to Slovakia we walked in the mountains and there is a lot of meat in central and Eastern Europe! After a day of hiking amid the clouds I was tired and weary and then we chanced upon a little cottage restaurant in the mountains that served this garlic soup and I never forgot it! You don’t often see it in restaurants anymore (as they don’t want to turn away all their customers I suppose!) and families don’t often cook it, I think as they have to work the next day! I also had dumplings in a sheep’s cheese sauce. That soup was just heaven after a day of walking. (Without the bacon, which is traditional but not for me.) The poorer mountain folk and peasants in the past only ate meat once a week as a treat, and survived on a lot of dairy and in a typical Czech or Slovak (I think Polish, Ukrainian and Russian too) a ‘meal’ is unthinkable without a first course of soup*. So you can have it as a first course, or as a main, which we usually do, as you can also jazz it up…
Optional:
You can add dumplings. I LOVE dumplings! Just any dumplings with interiors of vegetables and they will be like little floating islands in the garlic sea.
I’ve experimented with adding vegetables in the soup and found that chopped carrots (tiny cubes and small amount) are nice and chopped celery is also nice. Also I add tiny bits of pasta sometimes (you know the kind of pasta you would put in soups).
This is a non-onion soup as to do onions well just takes ages and takes away from the flavour of the delicious garlic. It’s also a non-cream soup. For vegans you can omit the cheese and maybe add nuts and seeds as a topping. For vegetarians be liberal with the cheese as it really is nice. But modify however you like and I’d love to hear! For gluten free of course omit all the breads. However another tradition is to serve this garlic soup INSIDE a hollowed out piece of sourdough bread, which is also divine. If you want you can also do a version of egg-drop soup and literally just drop an egg in and swirl it around, and you'll get egg noodly bits and the soup will do the rest of the work for you (bit of protein if needed).
YUM!!!!
You will STINK. (Now you know why I also teach online haha!) Your family will STINK and your kitchen and house will STINK. OR, smell GLORIOUS, depending on how you like garlic! So, open the windows!! And you will be really HEALTHY and warm inside!!
And have mint choc ice cream after or something! Or After Eights! I have found that chocolate does actually somewhat mitigate garlic breath.
*Did you know that sometimes in Slovakia they have SWEET main courses? That’s why they have savoury soup starters. I will never get used to this and it’s still really strange for me (basically I don’t like it! I want a savoury main, always). They have a sweet pasta dish as a MAIN course. !!! And in neighbouring Hungary they have sweet cherry soup as a starter. I’m going to try a strawberry soup in summer with my strawberry-obsessed boys.
Unrelated: Did you know that black garlic is fermented garlic and ever so slightly sweet. Great snack but looks really scary. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_garlic I am obsessed with garlic, can you tell?!..
...I will never get sick of the view of a sunset from a plane window above. This is really the golden hour and it was such a privilege to capture it. The Canaries are the same time zone as the UK so it really felt like we were flying 'in the same time' if that makes sense. Here's to more travel, teaching and painting, bookmaking and mapmaking, island dreaming and margin drawing in 2023! Garlicky yours,
Vaishali Prazmari
P.S. Beneath is a golden tea in a golden cup that is gold all over, including inside, that Patrik found in Portobello Market. The warm golden interior makes tea (and coffee apparently) look and swish differently and it feels richer. I just thought this would warm you in late January. It's a Pukka tea called 'Joy'!
