There have been three batches of paperwhite bulbs this winter—I
rather greedily took whatever I could find during various visits to the
weekly plant market, for a total of thirty bulbs. Only this past
weekend has there been the perfect combination of blossoms, sun &
time to create some "story strips" with various components. I had some
fun dissecting the seedpods with my X-Acto knife, both lengthwise &
crosswise (seen in the detail of the right-hand "page" of the story
strips below), as well as the flowers, the buds that never did open,
etc.
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I also thought I'd share some shots of the second "blooming" which, unlike thefirstone I shared on the blog, aligned itself with a period of sunshine. (I found the roots from the already-bloomed bulbs to be equally fascinating...)
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Other than the fragrance of a few last blooms, this is what remains...
...lots
of long stems starting to flop over under their own weight (I was inspired to take this photo because of the way the stems mimicked the pens angling out of the jar)...
...& a random bulb whose initial sprouts never took off
despite considerable coaxing (but which I have found to be quite lovely just sitting in the patinaed copper tray)...
Observing the paperwhites has certainly been a happy winter diversion during the past two months. On the note of such pleasures, I wanted to mention a book I have been rereading & thoroughly enjoying: ThePassionateObserver. My dear friend Andrea gave me this book ten years ago, and it is among my favorites in terms of the high-quality production & content. The text is a collection of writings by nineteenth-century French entomologist JeanHenriFabre, and is illustrated with watercolors byMarleneMcLoughlin (who knows how to visually bring out the beauty of an insect as well as Monsieur Fabre does through his affectionate & attentive observations of the creatures).
Wishing you equally fulfilling & inspiring pastimes in your spare moments too...
This month's color for the ROY G BIV photo challenge is orange. All week long, sun was predicted for today, so I planned my orange-themed activities/photos around the forecast—& then woke to pouring rain. As I went about my day, I continued to hold out hope that the fairly constant drizzle would eventually give way to the sunshine that was supposedly still a possibility.
I went to the plant market in search of orange freesias, but came home instead with primroses in a delightful new shade of fuchsia-y/orangish-red, an orange ranunculus & yet another clutch of Paperwhite bulbs...probably the last of the season. I baked scones (recipe here), worked on my latest letters for ALaW (described in the last post), then prepared afternoon tea (which included a custardy orange curd-cream I made yesterday). Because, you see, the plan for the orange edition of ROY G BIV all started with my new teapot—a "terracotta" Le Creuset 1.3L (which turned out to be a much sunnier shade of orange that gradually deepens to red toward the base). I have a number of favorite tea cups & mugs, including one that's a sort of taupe color. The other day I noticed what I thought was a lovely juxtaposition with the new teapot, so I decided I would contrast orange & a touch of red with warm, deep neutrals as my starting point for the "orange"-inspired photos. Unfortunately I wasn't able to realize all that this idea entailed because of the lack of sun (my experience is that every time I take photos without sunshine I will be inclined to retake them, so I generally don't bother).
Fortunately, though, I found another path. Orange played a big role in my most recent ALaW letters (the design for the one at the top of this post, 'S', was inspired by the teapot-&-mug palette), so at least there was something to "build" from. I had also photographed a beautiful pile of clementines with leaves one sunny day earlier in the week, & then serendipitously came across a photo of some orange tulips today. I put these together with a couple of photos I took on my way home from the plant market—it turns out that Ferragamo's shop windows featured backdrops in varying shades of orange that went remarkably well with the tulips & clementines. I am always amazed how little things like this end up working out...
Scattered among the photos I've mentioned are also a couple from this drizzly, gray afternoon, which at least was cozy & cheerful in the studio. When she heard me cursing the bad lighting, my daughter suggested I post them as black & white images. In the right situation this could have been an option, but of course orange was the whole point today. In fact, considering how much orange surrounds us, orange pretty much feels like the point of every day! I can't imagine a life without orange.
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In the last post I had wondered about what I might use the little ALaW boxes for; I found that several of my lovely organza tea bags fit perfectly in the orange, red & taupe box (below). You can also see the Blood Orange & Strawberry Spread in the glass beaker in the background—& on the scone—though it came out more of a lemon-y color, which is made even more so due to the lighting.
The design above was inspired by 'B'. {More details about this project in the previous post.}
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And here's the recipe for the Blood Orange & Strawberry Spread (click to enlarge). It began as a blood orange version of lemon curd—we have six kilos of tarocchi at the moment!—but because I used some whole eggs (instead of all yolks) & no lemon juice (but added strawberries), it's sweeter & more custard-y.
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The ROY G BIV photo challenge was conceived by artists Jennifer Coyne Qudeen & Julie Booth in 2012. Guidelines are here if you'd like to play along in future; March's color will be YELLOW (followed by GREEN, BLUE, INDIGO, etc.).
A new year - > new projects! A new year is also the perfect excuse for a new arrangement in the studio. While things are constantly changing places in our apartment, the studio desk has remained in the same spot for well over a year. This feels like an unusually long time to me...I am a wholehearted proponent of that principal of feng shui that says moving twenty-seven objects brings new energy to a space (I swear it's true!). The desk is now at an angle to the window, & I'm enjoying the new view from my stool, as well as the easier access to the window. Space has also opened up for my easel to go next to the window, & I am excited to resume painting with oils; I've had too many unrealized ideas floating around for far too long.
You don't really get a sense of it from the photo above, but when I sit at my desk at the moment I feel as though I am in a garden of Paperwhites, & it's lovely. The only thing missing these days is sunlight—though the sun did stop in for a nice visit today—& we're now up to a generous ten hours & five minutes between sunrise & sunset...
One project that has started up again is A Letter a Week 2014, edition five. Begun in 2010 by Australian artist FionaDempster, ALaW involves creating a letter each week of the year, for a total of two alphabets by year's end. The brief always includes an alphabet that is to be inspired by a particular theme (this year it's "place"), & the other one is open to the artist's interpretation. In both cases the letters must each fit within a 7x7-cm square & ultimately be brought together into a final piece...this can be a book, a wall piece, a quilt, a set of cards, etc. Last year Fiona organized a lovely collective exhibition of the three previous years' work. (More about the guidelines on the blogforthisyear'sALaW.)
While
I completed both alphabets in 2012 (my first year participating) I did
not fare so well with ALaW 2013. In fact, I am
still working on my "Peace" alphabet, & will likely not manage the
second one in the interest of completing both of this
year's alphabets. It was not for lack of inspiration or time at the studio table
that I struggled with ALaW in 2013, but rather that I had a hard time
settling down & committing to a concrete direction...I tend to get
carried away with the "process" sometimes, & enjoy playing
with/stretching
ideas—unfortunately sometimes at the expense of bringing them to a
conclusion. If
anything, ALaW has been useful in making me understand this; hopefully by the end of 2014 I
will be able to say that indeed I did manage to apply what I learned from 2013's attempts.
The structure of this first set of letters, my "free" alphabet, borrows from an idea I was developing for one of the alphabets last year; it will consist of twenty-six "sleeves" that each slide over a 7x7x2.75-centimeter box made of Canson Mi-Teintes paper in a variety of colors. Here are a few shots—with a glorious slice of sunshine—followed by images of the files...
The
concept for these "letters" came to me as I was creating a gift card for
my parents' seventieth birthdays. I started playing with a couple of
letters, trying to conceal their identities, but allowing them to guide the
design. At first I experimented with blocky, sans serif fonts, but
decided to see what would happen with the more flowing English Vivace.
Through a series of manipulations—duplicate, flip, group, rotate, repeat—I
then grouped the resulting elements into a new object, duplicated it & altered its
dimensions (which changed the amount of space between the individual
letters that comprised the object). I transformed them further by
applying different colors & then began layering the designs
(sometimes with a
further rotation of the original). This likely doesn't make much sense,
but I will try to record the steps of one of the letters at some point
to clarify the process.
The alphabet in English Vivace
Here are some of the letter arrangements in a more basic form; you may remember them from my Christmas greeting in thispost. The first one was made from 16 "P's," the second from 32 "J's," & the third from 16 "L's" (inspired by "peace," "joy" & "love").
Next are some screenshots of the files for the tops of the sleeves for the ALaW project, i.e. the "official" 7x7 cm squares...
"A"
"E"
"O"
"T"
"V"
Most sleeves will likely just have a design on the top, but these
next two images are screenshots of the print files for those with
designs on the sides/bottom as well (the lines at top/bottom are guides
for the scoring-lines).
Now I just need to decide what will go in the boxes!
I didn't photograph the original card before sending it off to my parents, but here are some of the others that have helped along/further inspired my AlaW alphabet. The first, a birthday card for my sister-in-law, is based on "A" (the colors are a little off as there wasn't much light the day I sent it off/took the photo). The next two are cards I made for my daughter's birthday, variations on the "E" theme. I'm looking forward to discovering other ways to use these designs...
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And, on a completely unrelated note, to conclude this post here's a song by the original Journey, circa 1975—a song either new to me or that I had forgotten about for the last couple of decades—Of a Lifetime. Enjoy...
As promised, here are some images of the Paperwhites in bloom. The rain has continued over the last several days, but I thought I'd try photographing them anyway since the forecast predicts rain, rain & more rain for the week ahead. I don't remember a January in Florence as wet as this one has been—even more reason to be grateful for Paperwhites brightening up the studio! And that scent—oh my... I find it fascinating to compare these photos to the ones in the previous post—the palette of light is so utterly different that it feels as though they were taken in a different season altogether. These shots are in fact more in keeping with winter. I do hold out hope that I may still capture the sweet little blossoms basking in the sun—at the very least those from the second batch of bulbs, which I have just "planted." (I am merely setting the bulbs in a tray with a few millimeters of water, so that only the roots make contact with it, then transferring them to glass containers in order to contain the wayward stems as they grow taller. Talk about easy gardening!)
I continue to be astounded by how much joy these bulbs & their blooms have given me, but I suppose part of it is simply the awe of watching something grow...and at a rate that is at once fast enough to actually take note of, yet also so fast that you can scarcely believe it: the "small" miracles of every day...
The imminent arrival of the new moon (10:40pm in Italy) is about to officially usher in the Year of the Horse, so Happy Lunar New Year!
For me, the Lunar/Chinese New Year actually feels like a more natural point to make a fresh start than does the traditional western new year. First of all, its date is determined by the moon, whose waxing & ebbing seem to have a definite influence on my own creative cycles. But it probably also has something to do with the fact that I am usually away from home on January 1st; this means the period before & after is spent preparing to go away/being elsewhere (not to mention that the holidays are inherently distracting, even for someone who favors a low-key approach). As a result, I am apt to return home to a fair amount of chaos—not really the best way to begin afresh. And then there is that inevitable list of things still waiting to be finished up from the year just passed. In any case, January is more of a getting-sorted-out month around here.
I must admit that, even
with this second shot at a New Year, I find I am continuing to get
organized. (Traditionally, Florence's new year began on 25 March—maybe that's a more realistic date to aim for.) I still haven't finished sifting through my photos & findings from Sydney (which I will share here at some point). The first image in this post does, however, feature some of my favorite treasures from our visit: a handful of star magnets made by my nephews, ages four & five-&-a-half (& who have been Sydney residents most of their lives). I am using the little clay stars to display one of my PaperSynthesis calendars on a magnetic blackboard, & they make me smile every time I see them. A rare day of brilliant sunshine last weekend really emphasized their lovely textures, so I got out the camera for my first studio photo session in what feels like a very long time. Another subject that got some attention from my camera that day was the mass of Paperwhite bulbs that I had found at the plant market the week before. I will try not to repeat myself, as my passion (some may say obsession) for Paperwhites is already detailed inthis post, but suffice it to say I have been reveling in their presence & delighting in watching the bulbs sprout roots & shoots.
By the end of the sunshiny afternoon, the light had managed to coax the very first flowers to split the spathe (as the sheath covering the buds is called—something I discovered while putting together this entry about daffodils); you can make out the about-to-emerge flowers in a couple of the images below. The sun was so generous & vibrant that day that, in order to be able to work at the studio table, I ended up donning the trilby hat passed on to me by my sister-in-law at the end of our Sydney visit. I liked how it caught the last of the light as it sat on my sketchpad, next to the Paperwhites (third set of images, left).
And now the Paperwhites are flourishing, & full of sweet little white blossoms. Photos to come if the sun returns before they start to fade...though, if not, there will be another chance—in an attempt to hang on to one of my favorite parts of winter, I couldn't resist picking up another cache of Paperwhite bulbs at the plant market today...
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Perhaps I am not as organized as I could be to greet the Year of the Horse, but I have noticed during the last week or
so that I can hardly keep track of all the inspiration & ideas that
have been flooding in—a good sign, I think. (Maybe it has something to do with witnessing the transformation of the bulbs into flowers—such a good energy to be around.) One thing is sure: it's an exciting place to be. Here's hoping you find yourself in exciting places too...
You may remember my ROY G BIV-inspired posts in the past. The challenge—begun by artists JenniferCoyneQudeen & JulieBooth in 2012—has begun once again, with RED. I am still sifting through my Sydney images/impressions, and feeling behind with blog posting & blog visiting, but what better motivation to say hello & happy 2014!
I must admit that the light (or lack of it, rather) hasn't inspired me to do much photographing since I've been back, but as I walked home from the post office the other day I passed an installation that appeared in Florence a few months ago & thought, "ah, red—perfect for this month's ROY G BIV!" I managed only a few blurry, dim shots in the pre-dusk drizzle, so returned to Vicolo dell'Oro today to try again. While the sky was an uninspiring white—an invitation for overexposure—I suppose the best you could say is that the red bits on the bicycles stood out all the more. Part of a series of cycling-related pieces created in honor of the Mondiali di Ciclismo (UCI Road World Championship) last fall, these 22 sky-bound bicycles scaling one wall of the Gallery Hotel Art have certainly been catching the attention of passers-by.
Below is another piece from the installation: two bicycles parked upon a giant 'hand'-mirror. The red Leica signs continued the theme of RED...
And another unofficial red-themed 'installation', which is in fact city-wide (and starting to reach beyond Italy), also has a presence in this little corner of Florence. In the last few years, French artist Clet has added a new facet to his work: a series of fairly discreet stickers that he places on street signs, rendering them quite whimsical while retaining (or perhaps you could even say, in some cases, drawing more attention to) their original purpose. His studio can be found in the little neighborhood of San Niccolò, by the church. Below are two of the stickered signs marking either end of the short street with the bicycle art.
I was impressed by how many shots of red—really quite necessary to these gloomy gray days, when you think about it!—I noticed on my short walk back home...just one of the effects/benefits of participating in ROY G BIV.
Guidelines for the ROY G BIV challenge are here if you'd like to play along in future;
February's color will be ORANGE (followed by YELLOW, GREEN, BLUE & so on).
