Summer 2023 | Forum

Vaishali Sharing · 2023-08-01T21:09:32.225Z

July did fly by And we did tie dye Thinking about blue in the rain A Book of Hours in a day Some reptilian play Chinese type and to Wales on the train... ...It was a rare privilege to be able to apportion my time in a 24 hour period and think like a monk. Here are all the paintings across 8 pages I managed to make. They all need finishing; they are great starts... ...a visual calendar as a frame (the Medievalists among you will recognise this as adapted from the Très Riches Heures du Duc de Berry) and the Anthropocene collapsed in a single day. I used a modern, international Gregorian calendar format which rests in the arches and hemisphere, recording myself as I was painting it and the weather and the sky outside at the time of painting. Since I did it over the course of one day, you only see a single arch progress. (For those that are completing the book over several days with the video recordings (or even months!) you'll see a different corresponding calendar progression). I started with a cave, of course, inspired by a Slovenian one but with a Mexican cenote (kind of indoor cave pool/body of water) then the Pyramids as seen from the perspective of a low-flying drone... …Within the frame I painted my favourite markers of human civilisation: the anthropocene collapsed into a day. Which is not unrealistic, considering the blip of time we've actually been around on Earth. This is of course highly subjective but I chose great works of architecture as my markers. Above is the Parthenon and then Mont St Michel, a nod to the original Medieval Book of Hours and also playing with a frame within a frame as a body of water which must be crossed - the Mont St Michel is on a tidal - or floating, if you think about it - island. I've been to its 'twin' off Cornwall, St Michael's Mount, which is still a true tidal island today and can only be accessed by foot at low tide, and there is no permanent bridge to it. For me it was interesting, and I talk about this in the videos, to record my own state of mind and physical state and to see in retrospect how this reflected in the paintings. I'm often up at midnight - and indeed at 3am - so the cave and the pyramids were easy enough to do. The Parthenon was quite difficult - I was just tired at 6am. I got super reinspired at 9am for Mont St Michel, that mad, hazy, almost drunken state having woken up after a second nap. I painted every 3 hours from midnight to 9pm and had naps in between in the early hours... ...working 8 hours, resting 8 hours (reading) and sleeping 8 hours, a traditional way to apportion a day. In the margins I used my Miniature Painting Paper Doll drawing aid (here: https://www.vaishaliprazmariteaching.com) to compose a figure in the margin in the position of my own cycle of sleep/wakeful state/rest/lunch or whatever I did around the time of that Hour. Thus it serves as a marker of an 'ideal day'/rhythm as well as a record and archive of what I did that particular day/time. So these little figures are alternatively resting and in wakeful or active positions. The one at Registan Square, Samarqand, above is lounging (plus it's a dark, broody sky to match the general weather outside in rainy England that day!) and there are 2 standing figures outside the Taj Mahal, inspired by the play which I want to see, Guards at the Taj. Registan Square is covered in a layer of sand, as if it has been reclaimed by the desert to some extent and the Taj is in a future dystopian half-ruined state. I am reading a lot of contemporary science fiction so this explains the 'Medieval but as seen from the future' mind... ...The point was to redefine our relationship with time and think about measures as well as having fun painting a Medieval-inspired Book of Hours for our times. The last building was the Forbidden City, a city within a city, covered in snowfall. For me snow signifies an ending of some sort. It's the last scene in Blade Runner 2049 and also makes me think of a post nuclear age when the world is covered in strange snow, ash or dust... possibly post-human, too, and we've all migrated to the stars. Or maybe it's just ordinary snow, as it does snow in north China anyway. Then the stars - the celebration of ending, the fireworks, and dinner - I was thinking of Douglas Adam's Restaurant at the end of the Universe. Scattered through the pages are some little Medieval rainbow grotesques which I fell in love with and had to include as marginalia. Speaking of Medieval books: make your own Carpet Page. Instructions here: https://vaishaliprazmaricarpetpage.thinkific.com/courses/make-a-carpet-page - once downloaded is yours to keep forever... Instructions to follow to make your own Carpet Page here ...and thankfully all classes have recordings for students to enable them to catch up in their own time, at their own pace and at their leisure since I recognise not everyone is able to be a monk. More here: https://www.vaishaliprazmariteaching.com Above, the first successful dumplings I made. I cheated and used shop-bought ready-made pastry - that's why they were successful. We steamed them in proper bamboo steamers. I also had a blue pea butterfly latte because of the blue novelty and it's a blue summer for us. I rarely have coffee, perhaps once a year or less, and it was to power me through the long Hours... …Sadly my carpet from a previous work (see if you can spot which one - it was not part of my 1001 Nights project so it's under 'Not 1001', here: https://www.vaishaliprazmari.com was destroyed by moths, I think this is also an insect year in the UK as I hear about it a bit from other people. I managed to salvage the fragments above which will recur in future works as it's such a gorgeous and rare rug. Freezer a couple of times, baking soda and white vinegar, vacuuming, ironing over a damp hot cloth as well as professional carpet cleaner - I'm applying all of the above to the carpet fragments as well as moth traps which do seem to work. (If anyone has any other ideas please let me know!). A composite Mughal elephant below, half finished. This was really fun to do and I made mine a bit wacky... …what's even wackier is this abstract Redington toy theatre painted by my 3 year old and I. I think it looks lovely actually! My Aladdin toy theatre (which will precede my 1001 Nights one) is coming on nicely and I found I'm doing the ornamentation as well as the scenery in one go. I've separated the characters which are coming later... Page control: Download free Geometry of the Page resources here ...the characters are heavily inspired by the idea of 'characterless characters' you find in the Nights, stock figures in miniature paintings and now Levni as well. I'm so glad to have the chance to include Ottoman miniature inspired figures in my imaginary procession which itself is like a festival procession of miniature figures: the butcher, the baker, the candlestick maker - they're all here. And here: https://www.vaishaliprazmariteaching.com in the upcoming TALES classes in which we take a stock character and concentrate on that character type, eg. the the guild of candlemakers, or circus artists. Finally there is also a Finishing School for former and current students to complete their paintings, at long last! https://www.vaishaliprazmariteaching.com/service-page/finishing-school?referral=service_list_widget Book classes Finish your work! ...We visited an exhibition about the evolution of Chinese type and it was a rare privilege to see the original, hand drawn characters for the fonts. If you think about it, there must always have been a painstakingly hand drawn character or letter for every digitised alphabet or language. If you look closely at the Chinese one, a graphic designer has very carefully hand drawn it and coloured it in with black marker pen. Wow! And Tippexed the edges (or equivalent) and uploaded these. Fascinating! It also occurred to me that Chinese book margins are the reverse of Islamic and European ones (which I prefer but now thinking about this). This is due to the printing and binding of the book and the fact that they fold the paper in half at the edge, not at the spine. Below are some wacky Chinese typefaces which you have to be Chinese to read and understand! And my 3 year old helping me with my book making by erasing pencil lines from the page. I am enjoying the toddler podge now as age 4 it starts to disappear. New stock for the Perfect Brush is coming soon too. Here: https://www.theperfectbrush.co.uk/shop More brushes and beautiful tools here ...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 for it. If you're not so internet savvy but are reading this, would like to join and don't like scrolling around so much...The Zoom link is via the Forum https://www.miniaturepaintingforum.com or here's the direct link: Monthly Miniature Meeting 22 August 2023, 6pm - 7pm London time - all welcome AUGUST MEETING Vaishali Prazmari is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting. Topic: Vaishali Prazmari's Miniature Monthly Meeting 22 August 2023, 6pm - 7pm London time Time: Aug 22, 2023 18:00 LondonJoin Zoom Meeting https://us02web.zoom.us/j/89560761450?pwd=UjRmdndHSmlOSThXZXpxWUJqZW9qQT09 Meeting ID: 895 6076 1450Passcode: 616769 --- Join by Skype for Businesshttps://us02web.zoom.us/skype/89560761450 Join the free forum ...Above, some armour from the Wallace Collection. I am anti-war on Earth (unless possibly it's interstellar to defend Earth!). I love objects of defence, not attack. The collection includes some 'beautiful guns' inlaid with mother-of-pearl and engraved - they'll still always be unfair weapons of destruction to me, I don't care how 'beautiful' they are. Some swords are nice too - I would use them to open champagne. Knives for food. Tools. What are truly lovely though are helmets. Protective devices like armour and clothing. That I can stomach and the work and detail that has gone into them is astounding. Some European armour with gold and those gorgeous helmets (we have mini reproductions of some of these, they are so intricate), some Chinese armour and who knows what that mask is for? Some were clearly for horses but some looked like they could be for dogs. Below is a Japanese afternoon tea I took my eldest son to. Our kids are messy. Japanese afternoon tea is not: it's precise, ordered, clean, neat, tidy, beautifully and ritually arranged and I hoped some of it would rub off on him as osmosis teaching for his long term memory. I also gave him a spy pen to write secret messages to me for writing practice. He is into spies and Pink Panther (da da da DA, da DA... remember Pink Panther? I used to watch with my grandma!)... ...Below is our summer of blue, cyanotypes coming later as there's just not enough sun!!!!! So we did tie dye with real indigo dye. The instructions said to use an equal amount (teaspoons) of each ingredient. I chucked in the whole packet of each; we had a LOT of dye. It felt mercurial and magical as some shiny indigo particles floated to the surface of the dye bath like a mirror. My husband came out of the studio through our laundry area full of clean white things to find us covered in blue in the courtyard. He did not expect to find us indigo dyeing. He said: 'I love you and I hate you for this'. He knows he married an artist who is also a kid. The indigo turns green when you add the caustic soda, look closely. Then you dip in things that initially turn yellow but then evolve through green into blue. Amazing! Not bad results either. The eldest in a piano shop seeing the connection between the piano keys and the strings behind them. The youngest holding a lantern going for an evening walk with us - this will be a painting one day, I love this image... ...Below, with my youngest in a restaurant, appreciating those beautiful toddler legs. On a train to Wales to see one of my best friends from childhood. 4 hour journey, 3 different trains, including a less than one minute platform change involving 2 kids and stairs. We had seconds to change platforms! We did it of course (no choice), you just find a way. We took only rucksacks, no suitcases, for the long weekend trip. The boys using a giant pencil to write in miniature books (this is our sense of humour). The eldest holding a snake. This summer was non-toxic (indigo) and non-venomous (the snake). The youngest gently petting his favourite animal. A roller bird in the Horniman museum and looking at shells. Last year we painted these for the 30 Birds in 30 Days series. This is the first time I've seen one in real (still) life. A ride on London's Cable Car, formerly just part of Transport for London and now rebranded as a Cable Car Immersive Experience so they can charge more. I'm really glad I was immersed in the cable car. It would be terrifying to be distant from the cable car. Everything is immersive, have you noticed? The boys tickling a bronze statue (their sense of humour, wacky and wonderful!). ... Below, Mixed Bathing at Aberystwyth, my favourite photo caption. Inter-species mixed bathing. Walrus bum at the Horniman - it's truly colossal.Camel bum, speaks for itself. Blueishly yours, Vaishali Prazmari

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