The world's largest Biennale which we've seen
l'll take you for some lèche-vitrines
En novembre, c'est Venise
Then more London, if you please
Till the end of the month there's time for birds
We finish the feathered then move on to the furred
Last postage dates
Please don't wait
Business and pleasure
Gorgeous natural treasures
Pleasure and business
Art inspiration is kids' bliss...
...The 30 Birds in 30 Days started on 1 November: 30 Birds for the Attar's Conference of the Birds. This is the Hoopoe. It's kind of a platypus of birds - it looks like parts from many different birds meshed together, yet it works. It was a pleasure to get into the fine rendering on the breast, neck and wings and to know when the lines must be soft and when hard...
...the lines of buildings are mostly hard, but there are soft areas like the quatrefoil that is probably my favourite shape ever. This is also architectural inspiration for my Memory Palace. Seen to great effect here at the Doge's Palace at night in Venice...
…But first London. We went to the UCL Grant Museum of Zoology for me to do some bird research and for the boys to enjoy. It's just one of many little free museum gems in London and has an amazing traditional layout. Note the skeletons peering down from the balconies. The museum is only one of I think 4 museums in the world to have actual dodo remains in its collection. I've been thinking a lot about dodos recently, and the idea of extinction. Everybody should - we're in the era of Extinction Rebellion and it's an issue that affects us all. The deepest horror in my research and Memory Palace is that it's a desolate, empty city. Nothing could be more horrific in my opinion.
On a lighter note, the chameleon - this is an upcoming class I'm teaching at the Prince's Foundation School of Traditional Arts (formerly PSTA): https://princes-foundation.org/school-of-traditional-arts/open-programme/mansurs-menagerie-the-chameleon-225e2a .
On a weirder note, below is the famed Jar of Moles. Next to that is the archaeopteryx, the missing link between the dinosaurs and the birds. Beneath is a pangolin, which I hope doesn't become extinct, and beside is a living bird (type of goose I think) from the London Wetland Centre in Barnes that we were able to get up quite close to...
...you can get even more up close and personal to a painting of a bird. Above is the Nightingale. Very plain in appearance, very beautiful in song. Although there are some wildly fantastic and exotically coloured birds in the 30 Birds series, it's also nice to have a simple but carefully rendered songbird, painted with care so that even its teeny tiny little legs have importance. Just studying and painting closely and also learning about how birds fit together from an artist's point of view. It is making me really appreciate nature and of course birds in particular as they are related to dinosaurs. The series ends on 30 November so there's still time to do a few more birds if you'd like https://www.vaishaliprazmariteaching.com/book-online and if you cannot make it live, I can send you the video...
...and although it's a bit early to start thinking about Christmas, it's not too early to start thinking about potential postal strikes and ordering in advance. If you would like to gift a Perfect Brush as a Christmas gift (they make Perfect Presents) please do so. You'd be surprised that the last posting date for some international destinations is not mid December, as I also thought, but 1 December!! That's right - 1 December if you're in Australia or New Zealand. And definitely before 7 and 10 December for most other worldwide destinations, so, fair warning. (And if you are in the British Virgin Islands, Dominica or Anguilla, too late - it was 7 October! Sheesh!) We are a small family business so please get your orders in early to avoid disappointment! https://www.theperfectbrush.co.uk/shopAbove is my flamingo, one of my favourite birds ever (the peacock, the ostrich and the flamingo... the swan too but then it's not a triumvirate). I'll post more of these online as I finish them (kinda); apart from the ones above I've only finished a handful...
...I do occasionally check lists of the world's birds in case I've missed any in my typology. Known missing birds are the seabirds such as the albatross and these are unlikely to have been painted by miniaturists anyway. Eventually I hope to have an 'extras' list of birds to include:
Blue Jay
Emperor Penguin
Swan
Harpy Eagle
Cuckoo
Mockingbird
Swift
Hornbill
Toucan
Tit
Sparrow
Or by voting. Bear in mind that this is not only a subjective list, it is also an artist's list, so I'm just looking at the birds as a collection of puttings together of feather types, beak types, foot types etc and not as an ornithologist, plus for their symbolic value. Ideas welcome! I won't paint birds forever, I just want to get them out of my system now so there will be a comprehensive collection. A real Parliament of Fowls. I'll also rerun the Peacock class as a separate Masterclass next year. In the meantime, enjoy these images of painted birds on elevator doors in London.
And now, let me take you on a weekend trip to La Serenissima. My son spotted the moon from the plane, that was so magical for him. I spotted the Dolomites, that was magical for me. In the Giardini, we spotted more birds, that was coincidental for us. And an elephant by Katharina Fritsch. And more and more and more art in the biggest art biennale in the world. Brief commentary below...
…after the elephant, the fountain from Ukraine. (Russia was out for obvious reasons.) A forest in a room. Giant colourful paintings (London). Giant figural rope sculptures (India). Ancient Middle East patterns reconstructed (Israel). A giant ear (Brazil) so we could go 'in one ear, out the other'. Magic realism. More giant colourful paintings. And smaller magic realist ones, and one that's bird related. Giant playful clay oven sculptures (Mexico). Folded sculptural drawings. Iridescent drill bits reflecting on Gulf oil. A giraffe parade. I'll try to tag the artists or equivalents online when I post in social media stories but since there was just so much art it may not always be possible. For more information please visit https://www.labiennale.org/en/art/2022 .
Our favourite Pavilion was the Slovenian one (NB: My husband is from Slovakia, not Slovenia). Magic realist paintings. It was just a pure pleasure to see big imaginative paintings again after a long time. I currently don't have the studio space to work at this scale, but you never know, in a couple of years I could again at the Slade.
One day I want my films to be set against giant arches and reflected in water like this (Italy). Beautiful abstract painting (Japan). Playful loopy sculptures (Hungary). Giant curtains (and I don't mean that as an insult - I really like them! I like curtains now, after thinking about them for my toy theatres). Different kinds of knives. Giant masks. Remedios Varo. The show's title was The Milk of Dreams, which comes from Leonora Carrington's son. She made them an illustrated book, and he titled it. How wonderful! A giant black 'teaching tree' (Saudi Arabia). Part 3D part naturalistic sculptures (France). A giant beautiful Black totem to end (US).
Phew! Now my bedragged? bedraggled? [descriptor for person who has been dragged around art museums kind of against their will but also secretly likes some of it] husband needs a coffee. So let's go to Florian's in San Marco Piazza and admire the gold geometric ceiling and clever, easy to clean glass walls. And then go back to the hotel in the narrowest of streets, from where you see that the building opposite dates from 1617...
…above St Mark's Square in November, just before acqua alta, the high water/flooding season that comes yearly. Now for the photos below: I then proceeded towards the Rialto bridge, not quite going that far as it gets touristy but along the way in San Marco I chanced upon a chocolate fountain of the Rialto bridge. Of course I had to pause and fill my cup! And having filled my belly with the nicest hot chocolate I continued with my shopping trip in Venice. I acquired these wonderful quatrefoil objets d'art (no idea what they are) in all 4 colours, reminiscent of the Doge's Palace as I just couldn't resist. Then I stopped by a wonderful little glass shop (of which there are many - but this one was really the best) and bought half the window display. I gifted myself a humorous Pink Panther chess set, because, well, just because it made me laugh and I do love Pink Panther. Da da da daaaa...da daaa... I glimpsed an ad reminding me to book my next trip to Jordan and watched as Venice started to decorate itself for Christmas...
...aaaaaand here ends the little magical realism punctuating my narrative because I didn't do anything of the sort. That was all in my head! A bit of extraordinary in the ordinary. At what point did it dawn on you that I was making it up? Instead I indulged in a bit of window shopping and that was that. We did have amazing hot chocolate (elsewhere). Italians do it better. I did get some glass trinkets, 3 for 5 euros for the boys and some masks (at end of newsletter). I took nothing but photos and left nothing but wet rainy footprints and the outline of my tongue on the glass from all the window licking (just joking, don't worry). I did get new glasses. Italians do it better. I loved this font for the Royal Jordanian Airways, that's all. A bit of design inspiration...
...and I've just about finished my design for my toy theatres. That is the structural design, not the ornamentation design. This is the next phase! Then the scenery and wings, and finally the characters. I always like to see what other painters in water based media are up to. We see lots of art in our miniature monthly meetings (and not just limited to miniatures). The December meeting will also be the Private View for 2022's End of Year Show, Painted Ladies, dedicated to all the grandmothers in the world. The Zoom link is via the Forum https://www.miniaturepaintingforum.com or here's the direct link:
Monthly Miniature Meeting 20.12.22, 8-9pm London time - note time change for December: and Private View for End of Year Show 2022, Painted Ladies! All welcome
DECEMBER MEETING
Vaishali Prazmari is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting.
Topic: Vaishali Prazmari's Miniature Monthly Meeting 20.12.22 8-9pm London time - note time change
Time: Dec 20, 2022 20:00 London
Join Zoom Meeting
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Meeting ID: 831 3646 2811
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Join by Skype for Business
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...the Venetian masks we got were a crocodile, a swordfish (not shown) and a crab. A whole undersea team. There are workshops where kids can make their own masks from papier maché, but this is for slightly older kids. So this is for another time in Venice. I just really, really, really liked that crab mask. How else to get a crab to sit on your head? It's interesting from a design perspective. The other animals they had were very straightforward and you could imagine them...
…the eldest does a Chinese painting class taught in Mandarin in Chinatown. I love how his teacher is teaching him. They say that the traditional Chinese way is strict, but this teacher (who evidently has grown up with the rigorous approach) is taking a really good middle way. Teachers know what they are doing. A bit of proper rigour and repetition and pointing out that no, that is actually wrong, generally shrimps don't look like that. As well as, yes, your shrimp looks great and it's your particular shrimp and yours looks like that and it has 2 mouths! The realistic mouth, and then the smiley face mouth you've added on top because you're a child who just won't be satisfied unless there is a smiley face on it. Which is brilliant! He explained to me that he doesn't want to teach kids to be too cartoony (as is also sometimes taught which I also don't like), and to appreciate a bit of realism which paves the way for understanding proportion, and he allows my son to experience mastery through effort. Effortful fun! And he's willing to change the painting subject at very short notice too, as C will suddenly want to paint a hippo, and then a giraffe, why not. I approve of absolutely everything. I can't teach IN Chinese so he's perfect. There is space for C's creativity. There is space for practice (above he decided to practice on his own at home. Luckily I had some spare scrolls!). And also it's half child-led, half teacher-led, which is part of my approach and aim too. I could go on. It's a subject I find endlessly fascinating as my kids are growing but I'll stop here. It's a dance...
...in other news, weird vegetable season is slowly coming to an end so I am making the most of it. Purple cauliflower and a podgy hand...
...and my two little fledglings in a moment of calm quiet contemplation watching the sunset over Venezia. Kids really are like little birdies. High-pitched chirping, flitting about between activities, fast-moving, nest building, snacking whenever they can, and, quite honestly, pooing wherever they like. Ahem.The not-quite-yet-potty-trained half of the duo. They are also cute and fluffy and curious. Bellissima. Ornithologically yours,
Vaishali Prazmari