Snow in June
Does not occur
But ask Tan Dun
He won’t concur
He made a music piece
With June snow as its theme
Yet June is when I think of
Strawberries and cream
Not snow but creative flow
In June with the midsummer moon
Make hay while the sun shines though
It’ll be autumn all too soon
Oxymorons are fun, you should definitely try them
Deadlines work too: pressure makes diamonds…
…I’ve got a lot of plans for myself this summer! Summer is my favourite season of all and it’s when I have the most energy and feel like I’m at my peak, as I suspect many people are. There’s just something about long sunny days that gives me so much joy and inspiration to work hard and play hard. I understand why the ancients worshipped the sun…
…the sun is epitomised in the glorious yellow sunflower, the colour of summer. Come paint this with me in July: https://www.vaishaliprazmariteaching.com/book-online ...
Book an evening of flowers here
… July is also the month of friendship! To celebrate International Friendship Day (July 30th), bring your friend to this Masterclass where we paint 2 friends and you'll both enjoy £30 off.. It's Daulat the painter sitting opposite his friend and painting. Who knows what they talked about? Maybe the painter is painting his friend and his friend is painting him... perhaps they're both working on commissions together or separately... or perhaps they're doing something entirely different. Daulat the painter has temporarily looked up (as we must rest our eyes from time to time) and rested his gaze on the nearest living thing, his friend. They're definitely friends - they're in the friend zone of spatial intimacy and enjoying each other's company wordlessly. This is the best feeling - knowing someone so well that you can be in each other's presence and work quietly and separately without necessarily feeling the need to talk, yet the comfort of their warm presence animates the silence. You're alone, but together at the same time in the shared sacred creative flow zone. It's wonderful! It's rare-ish too. Tell me if you have experienced this with a loved one? For 30% off, use this code upon checkout: FRIENDS - This course and upcoming others can be found at https://www.vaishaliprazmariteaching.com I doubly love this piece as I haven't painted a painter before and I want to honour him as a fellow artist. I want to paint the deep calm in his eyes and the happiness he exudes because he's immersed in practising his art. It's how I feel when I paint, and it's one of the reasons I paint too - painting is who I am, it's what made me me and I can't live without it. We talk about all this and more during The Art of Attention, the small, select group who are currently enjoying my mentoring project. It'll continue in autumn; please email me if you're interested in joining. More here: https://www.vaishaliprazmariteaching.com/bookings-checkout/the-court-of-gayumars-art-of-attention?referral=service_list_widget and here: https://www.miniaturepaintingforum.com/forum/news-and-announcements/the-court-of-gayumars-the-art-of-attention...
Paint a painter with your friend with £30 off each
…So how many people have we here? You're painting a painter painting his friend with your friend painting a painter with their friend. Answers at the very end!
...And here's a painting of a painting: just seen is the dome ceiling that I painted and that is the background to my portal site https://www.vaishaliprazmari.com. One of my plans this summer is to aim to finish all the interior paintings I planned 7 years ago (!). Here’s the infamous opium bed - it exists in a painting as it doesn’t exist in the finished form in real life quite yet; that’s the summer job...
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...reversals and mises-en-abyme are a feature of the 1001 Nights and a theme throughout my work and life too. I designed and painted the bed in the painting before we made it, so the actual bed will look a bit different - we'll use it as a spot-the-difference game for the kids! I'm also fascinated by painters who painted clothes and then women fell in love with the painted image of clothes and would take the picture to their tailor and say 'make me that!' This happened in the world of both miniature painting and the posters of Shanghai* girls** with their beautiful cheongsams/qipaos (itself a Chinese dress that was originally designed for men, but that empowered women decided to wear, asking their tailors to 'make me that!' but to fit their curves). We're currently painting a cross-dressing lady and I plan on painting more ladies and their clothes which may or may not exist over summer and later - and it would be wonderful to approach a tailor one day and say 'make me that!' after I've painted it! *I'd like to paint them one day too; perhaps for my original Shanghai lady, ie my mother. **How many ladies have we here? Easy: 2! This is the famous Two Girls brand from 30s Shanghai. The story goes that the man behind the brand saw two sisters walking down the street and he asked them if they were angels (I hope he didn't ask them if they'd descended from heaven, for those of you who grew up in 90s UK, hehe!) - and they replied no, we are just two girls. Shanghai ladies were inspired by all things western and in the spirit of Europeanoiserie they got their tailors to copy western designs in Chinese dress form. Another kind of cross-dressing. I love it! I want one. These girls are similar to miniature girls in many ways. Actually, they are miniature, because they existed on soap bars and tea caddies and the like! Mix and match and chit and chat: our June meeting is on 15.6.21, 6-7pm London time. Zoom link is via the Forum https://www.miniaturepaintingforum.com or here's the direct link:
Vaishali Prazmari is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting. Topic: Vaishali Prazmari's Free Monthly Miniature Meeting 15.6.21 6-7pm GMT Time: Jun 15, 2021 18:00 London Join Zoom Meeting https://us02web.zoom.us/j/81967208511?pwd=MExxdmx6OS94b2tucURBMy9HMlZzQT09 Meeting ID: 819 6720 8511 Passcode: 732587 Join by Skype for Business https://us02web.zoom.us/skype/81967208511
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…This summer I'm also working hard and playing hard with some new brushes, which, along with some exciting new offerings, will hopefully come in autumn. https://www.theperfectbrush.co.uk ...
...I’ve been listening (and watching) the composer - and visual artist, actually - Tan Dun. I like the way he works with unconventional musical instruments such as pebbles, water in bowls and paper. I can’t wait to try these out with my sons. Weird musical instruments - there’s a new theme for our lockdown homeschool! (Because I am always prepared for another one, just in case!). Here's the eldest 'making charcoal', or possibly 'fishing for vegetables', or maybe just 'cooking his carrot'. His idea...
…in stark contrast to myself, I have absolutely NO fixed ideas nor plans for the kids this summer. (Apart from making cyanotypes together, that’s now a family tradition!) I do believe kids should be bored and have long endless days of summer when they can just be a bit wild and free and messy. The rest of their year is structured and we all love hot weather and mucking around. I myself remember long endless summer days of nothing to do - because I always had something to do - the uninterrupted free time was gold, and it’s what made me an artist. Yesterday baby K smeared ash on his hands and face like a little sadhu holy man (presumably because we’ve run out of sand in our 'sand pit' - see below - which he loved so much he poured everywhere - small particles are so fascinating to young children!). Then he wanted to paint, and then experiment with trying to drink water and trying to drink his brother’s milk from a cup all by himself, and then see what soil tasted like. The two kids were properly, happily filthy at the end of the day. Straight in the shower and they slept like two logs*. We all loved all of it!
*The Two Logs: free idea for a brand name of kids' clean-up soap for tired dirty children. I saw two brothers playing all day and then miraculously they slept like logs all night and I thought, Yippee! Free time for me! Then I fell asleep too ;-)
Answer to the riddle: 5 people, not 4! Who remembered the portrait in the painting?
Filthily yours,
Vaishali Prazmari