I have been collecting my stuff for my workshops in Melbourne next week and I pulled out this book I bought a few years back when I only thought I might be interested. It is a guide to methods of painting written in the 15th century written by Cennini and translated into English. It's packed with all manner of fascinating information. I shall take it to read in the plane as I dare not sit around reading it right now - I am supposed to be making samples, collecting and sorting and then trying to work out how to get it all into my 3 suitcases.
It's a beautiful day today - not too hot but a fresh sea breeze.
A few of my fragment samples - tissutex onto panne velvet wrecked as much as I can today
this one is some frustrating thread scraps
and silk fibres with sinimay and Moonshadow Mist
Tonight we are off to Keating the Musical. By all accounts it should be good.Tomorrow we are going to try the trip to Fremantle again for the outdoor chairs, hopefully before the shop closes this time.
What am I listening to in my studio? Tom Waits. What is Ian listening to in the house? Something else.....
1 comment:
Hi!
Your post worked like an instant time machine.
Once upon a time I thought I was going to grow up to be a museum curator. I knew a graduate degree was necessary...so I flew through college, graduating at age twenty. My major was Medieval and Renaissance Studies with a concentration in Italian art.
In order to graduate early, I had to skip lots of the lower level course and go directly into the advanced ones. This meant, I had to be part of the honors college...so I became part of the honors college. There was a "catch", of course. Graduating from the honors college meant one had to write a senior thesis, have a project, defend ones' work in front of the department's faculty, etc. etc.
My senior thesis was on Cennino Cennini and how the technical difficulties (like getting lapis lazuli of good quality, obtaining enough ink from cuttle fish, preparing three grades of gesso, etc.) affected the ways in which artists created work. Basically, since the renaissance artist didn't have "the thread studio" from which to order supplies from half way around the world within a week or so, he (she) had to make due with more easily obtainable products. These decisions affected the very iconography of art created during this time.
For my project, I made squirrel hair brushes and crayons and rabbit skin glue....and my mother swears her kitchen has never smelled the same. I created raised halos on panel under layers of linen, crushed all sorts of stone, and even did rudimentary gilding.
The book is quite interesting...it really takes me back to a time when I was denying my secret passion to make art by studying it instead...and still managing to get my hands dirty!
Thanks for the post.
Susan
Oh, I just realized that I'm not logged in with my regular blog. I generally post as Susan Lenz at http://artbysusanlenz.blogspot.com. I'm a customer...Mouse House, in Columbia, South Carolina. It is a bit ahead of schedule, but if you follow the account with which I am posting, you'll discover what I'm up to...and you have a part in it...if (my fingers are crossed) you want.
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