Fire, fountains, ice and moon poo
Miniatures, mermaids and Barbie too
Torsos, dancing, painting and pink
And Ken is having a coffee, I think...
...This is a Fire painting I started. Here's the gilding process: first paint on the gold size...
...gild...
…let dry then burnish for shine. Here I've used an assortment of different golds: loose leaf, transfer leaf, real gold and fake gold paint...
...the best birthday gift was a present from my friend the artist Alexa Seligman, a print of moon poo which is a type of mushroom and a signature shape...
...I also saw my friend Laila Tara H's show at Cooke Latham gallery, note the fantastic framing and beautiful sparse imagery. Below is part of Jason and the Adventure of 254, a show at the Wellcome with dioramas and interactive displays thinking about disability, medicine and the body. Beneath is Francis Alÿs' show Ricochets at the Barbican - eyes on gold leaf inspired by the stares of Kurdish children and other paintings depicting children at play - the artist travels the world documenting children's play and children's games. It was an excellent show, highly recommended and a reminder of games we all used to play pre-screens...
...below are some playful August classes coming up, a fantastical Margin, actors, performers, puppeteers, plate spinners and dancers.
The story of Farhad and Shirin is another legendary romance. Layla and Majnun is perhaps more famous and this might be the second most famous love tragedy - and he is a real lover, and a sculptor. I love the depictions of Farhad the sculptor in paintings. The tale of Farhad and Shirin is part of the wider more famous tale of Khosrow and Shirin. In this tragedy, Khosrow actually cheats on Armenian princess Shirin - but Farhad remains true, he is the true lover and dies for his love. Khosrow is a royal and his friend Shapur the painter shows an image of Shirin to him. Khosrow instantly falls in love - and this is the subject of many a miniature painting. They keep crossing paths and missing each other in the middle of waging wars.
Enter Farhad the sculptor: he is also in love with Shirin, but jealous Khosrow demands he carve a stairway out of rock to delay him (knowing it is an impossible task). The scheming king then sends a message to Farhad saying that Shirin has died. Farhad is consumed with grief and hurls himself off the rock and dies, unrequited in his love. That's why it's a sad story. Oh, and in the meantime, Khosrow cheats on her (!). But all is eventually forgiven. There are other star-crossed lovers and purposes too but those are the main bits. Eventually they are both killed by someone else's jealousy so... just desserts? I don't know. It's not my favourite tale as it's quite complex and problematic, and the characters are a bit annoying - except for Farhad and perhaps Shapur - both of the artists! If there is a tale of purer love I think that is Leyla and Majnun, and I include Farhad in that column of real lovers who are in love with love too. Some spectacular rocks to paint here because Farhad is hacking away at them, so it makes for a very atmospheric painting. It's worth devoting a whole class to this one episode for the moment it evokes.
There are several painted examples of this scene; I've only included a couple here but you are free to choose another reference or design your own version of this classic. Another memorable moment is when Farhad carves a river of milk for Shirin when she is thirsty. He cuts a channel from a mountain where goats graze all the way to a pool at the foot of Shirin's palace and fills it with milk. What a guy. Wow! My dad once stopped the car for my mom when she wanted to paint her nails on whim. They were driving near the Niagara Falls if I recall (I wasn't born yet). As a child, I thought that was romantic, but a whole river of milk is something else!...
Book classes
Join 1001 Nights Reading Group
...There is also a Dragon Scale book, or whirlwind binding. This is in between the book and the scroll proper and is a beautiful form of binding from China. The next batch of the 1001 Nights reading group also starts in August - look out for the pink camel - and also the next batch of the Scroll Apprenticeship class, in which you'll see art being created from scratch. You'll also see 2 different approaches to the same subject matter: Indo-Persian and Chinese painting techniques. A very low-demand class as for this you just watch, absorb and learn that way, no need to 'do' anything actively except look (email me if you're interested in this for more). All here: https://www.vaishaliprazmariteaching.com/book-online
Join 1001 Nights Reading Group
Below is a female torso in a yellow gold dress in oils. I saw it in a shop window in London and was very impressed by the mastery of the dress. The silk is painted beautifully...
More brushes and beautiful tools here
...All brushes here: https://www.theperfectbrush.co.uk/shop and here's the link to my Make a Carpet Page e-course. Once downloaded it's yours to keep forever: https://vaishaliprazmaricarpetpage.thinkific.com/courses/make-a-carpet-page or purchase some easy-watching, relaxing painting films.You can get your own ALADDIN toy theatre here: https://www.theperfectbrush.co.uk/product-page/aladdin-paper-toy-theatre...
Watch painting films
Book classes
...I took a selfie of my own torso in the iconic cheongsam/qipao Chinese dress a dear friend gifted me and which I love. Its shape has become associated with 'traditional Chinese dress' but did you know it's actually not really that traditional? It was originally designed for men but everyone decided it looked better on women. Traditional Chinese clothes are more flowy. Another dear friend lent me an important book to read - Black women in British academia, a good reminder about class, power and privilege (read the novel Babel by RF Kuang for more, a historical fiction novel set in Oxford in which Victorian Britain is powered by silver bars infused with the magic of translation from one language to another).
Next, colourful snail racing as seen at the Francis Alys show at the Barbican and then a colourful singing fountain in eastern Slovakia, where we went for a family wedding. Don't some of the fountains look like jellies?...
...If you're bored on holiday and want to reconnect with the world of painting let's chat! The monthly meeting link is also over at the Forum, which now is a real hub of information and you just need to scroll around or use the Search tool to find information. It's sorted into broad categories too.
The Zoom link is via the Forum https://www.miniaturepaintingforum.com or here's the direct link:
Monthly Miniature Meeting 25 July 2024 at 6pm - 7pm London time - all welcome!
Join Zoom Meetinghttps://us02web.zoom.us/j/82334023615?pwd=7FmEnUoqugL55EQNyzWRe66eo4B8YS.1
Meeting ID: 823 3402 3615
Passcode: 481968...
...I took another dear friend - summer is the time to see dear friends - to the London Canal Museum, which is also the home of an ice pit - where they used to store ice. Victorian ice cream was originally served in 'licking glasses' and washed out (probably) and given to the next customer. I'm not sure if they used soap, it sounds like they might have just swilled it with water and passed it on. Yuck! Then a woman invented the ice cream cone. We went on a canal boat ride into the tunnels which was lovely. In the space of less than a second my boy with 1000 faces did these two faces and my phone captured them...
...A theatrical intermission (we saw the Lion King - SO uplifting for children and adults and highly recommended that you see it once at least!): A Boudicca head sculpture once adorned the Hippodrome proscenium. Fun fact: 'hippodromes' were originally for horses, and this is where the original idea of 'circus' comes in as the floor was dirt for horses to ride round on, and then it came to mean music hall, dance hall or theatre. This little boy danced at the wedding...
...and Barbie Can at the Barbican. Barbie trigger warning: now comes pink! We saw the Barbie exhibition at the Design Museum. It was great to see the historical Barbies but it was actually a very small show. The problem with Barbie for me is her size. She's not giant and lifelike, nor is she tiny like Polly Pocket (which I preferred). She is a doll size and so her house has to be quite massive. Amazing modern Barbie houses however, and I think they used world's pinkest pink liberally. Barbie can be anything - any career. My favourite Barbies in the show were the Adwoa Aboah one in a sequinned dress and turban, and the one in a Mondrian dress. Lastly, there were the Kens! Unfortunately none of them were very interesting at all. She's everything! He's just Ken...
...Which Barbie is your favourite? Which Ken is your favourite? Did you play with Barbies as a child? I had 3: an all-American one with standard blonde hair (and a cool mermaid dress with iridescence), a Cinderella Barbie with white-blonde hair (I did like her hair, it looked so unusual) that had blue pointe ballet shoes and a beautiful Indian Barbie wearing a yellow sari with green trim who also had jewellery (which you poked on - weird). My boys sometimes play with them when they're at my parent's house, although the years haven't been good to the plastic on the legs, which is somehow a little sticky. Whereas my Polly Pockets are all still pristine and portable, intact and interesting.
Playfully pinkishly yours,
Vaishali Prazmari
P.S. My very own life-size Ken doll is below. I did not drag him to see the Barbie show. His slightly unimpressed face says it all: "Really? Well, good for you. Go and enjoy with the kids and your friend and leave me out of it. I'll be having my coffee in peace." Mr. Prazmari is the man behind the books, the kids, the mafia pasta he makes, and functions as my general tech support and life support. D'akujem vel'mi pekne zavšetko, aj milujem t'a. Teraz vypiš si kávu. Na zdravie!