Travelling Time and Space

"No art, however minor, demands less than total dedication if you want to excel in it."

Leon Battista Alberti (February 18, 1404 – April 20, 1472) - Italian author, artist, architect, poet, priest, linguist, philosopher, cryptographer, and general Renaissance humanist polymath.

For a while now I have been studying the works of Nicholas Hilliard, namely his phenomenal miniature portraits, and collected book after book on this particular art form. Not too different from illumination in painting materials the size and topic of these tiny pieces of art is incredibly intriguing and so I have at least 2 projects of this kind on my to-do-list.

Yesterday  I received a miniature frame in the mail for a commission piece and I can't wait to get started. Luckily, the sciatic nerve episode seems to be subsiding and I can again sit at a table (rather than remaining motionless in a half-reclined position with a heating pad underneath) for short amounts of time. Maybe I will get some painting time in today!

Illuminators known for their achievements in the art of miniature portrait paintings are, of course, Nicholas Hilliard, Jean Fouquet, Hans Holbein the Younger, Lucas van Horenbout, Simon Bening and Bening's daughter Levina Teerlinc who even worked as court painter at the Royal English Court.

Sir Raymond the Quiet sells two types of miniatur frames at his store here http://quietpress.com/ but I have discovered a number of Christmas tree ornaments that work equally nice.Evolving from the art of book illumination miniature portraits were painted on vellum backed with either pasteboard or playing cards (gotta love this medieval idea of recycling). The most popular shape were oval and round with the occasional rectangular example in the early days and measured between 1" and 2 3/8" in diameter.

Portrait miniatures began to really flourish in 16th century Europe and continued well into the 17th century and 18th century. They were used to introduce people to each other over distances; a nobleman proposing the marriage of his daughter might send a messenger with her portrait to potential suitors. Soldiers and sailors might carry miniatures of their loved ones while traveling, or a wife might keep one of her husband while he was away.

I must admit that Facebook's instant gratification of one line status updates has me sucked in deep and well. Quite obviously as, as you can tell by the copious amounts of entries in this blog over the past two months.

We have been battling the endless summer break ennui with trips to the beach, hiking in the parks, visits to the zoo, explorations of local and not so local museums, studies of caterpillars morphing to butterflies and ensconcing ourselves in the many stories found at the library with good success. We have been gardening and learning more about pillbugs, earthworms and mosquitos. We have come home dirty and sunburned, the thin skin on our noses peeling like the calendar leaves as time passes by. Summer isn't endless and the first signs are there: Back to school sales, the first email from school, Finndragon's birthday looming on the horizon.

It's been a really good summer so far.

Scriptorium went really really well. We had a wonderful array of classes before the background of Middle Eastern delights and many lovely guests. I wish more people of the Shire had gotten involved but the handful that did were worth their weight in gold and then some. I'd do it again if they were by my side for another crazy adventure like this :o)

The next events on my list are Coronation (at which hubby plans to re-authorize) and then Village Fair. I'm really excited about Village Fair, not only because I will be teaching 2 classes and hubby will be fighting but more so because we will be camping as Terrenum Incantatus for a first ever in-persona encampment. I've been browsing for cast iron cooking equipment for my camp kitchen and can't wait to smell the aromatic scent of a wood fire (please let there be no burn ban) or at least a coal fire while camping again. Heaven!

What else, what else? I have a number of projects lined up like airplanes approaching LAX - one after the other, a shining row of shiny moments :o) from miniature portraits to scrolls to new outfits. A young lady approached me with questions in regards to mentoring and so far we have struck up a very amiable lively conversation- I'm looking forward to seeing how and where to it is going to progress.

This month we have one more meet-up scheduled for the German playgroup I organized at the beginning of the year and a bigger workshop next month with Finn's birthday party rounding out the month. Before that, though, there is going to be a family reunion in PA with hopefully a quick and crazy escape to NY city for hubby and I.

Hopefully I will have managed to unearth the camera cable until then ...*sigh*