THE STUFF OF DREAMS

Women of the Golden Age of Illustration: Eleanor Fortescue-Brickdale

“…The decorative illustrator has usually literature to illustrate, and a commission to be beautiful and imaginative in his work. He has the opportunity of Rossetti, the opportunity for significant art.” ¹

~~~

“Therefore all art is illustration, though it rather seems to follow that all illustration is not art.” ²

~~~

“I feel inclined to throw away my palette and brushes. What are my things by the side of stuff such as hers.” ³

~~~

BURNT ICE

A Book Cover and a Few Other Things for Later

Over the last few years, I’ve been walking quite a lot, mostly along the edge of the sea.

DISAPPEARING INTO THE INSTANT

Or the Quiet Art of Balancing in the Present

Mist is a must. Overcast skies and low cloud are good. A little rain as well, but light.

IMAGES WERE MAGIC ONCE

Or The Need for Words in a World of Pictures

It is indeed getting pretty sad, I thought, when I write a text at someone’s request, send it dutifully off (albeit certainly so late it is no longer of any use, or for some catalogue long gone to the printer) and then cannot for the life of me recall who it was for.
Although, the modest silver lining is of course stumbling upon it again and thinking well, there could be a place for that…

DRAWING THE LINE SOMEWHERE

Or All About Making Your Mark

One of the best ways to go on about yourself, albeit obliquely, is to proffer advice.

STRANDS AND BROKEN SHELLS

Or Thoughts for the Year to Come

I think if I had to choose what seashells I prefer, I would respond “The broken ones.”

ABOUT THE MOVING OF MOUNTAINS

Or the Able Tools of Patience and Passion

It seems we humans have a certain preoccupation with material things.

SHIPS, SAILS AND FARAWAY PLANETS

The Forgotten Voyage of William M. Timlin

Several months ago, I received one of those offers that cannot be refused. Calla Editions, the fine art book imprint of Dover Publishing, was preparing a re-edition of William M. Timlin’s book The Ship That Sailed to Mars. Would I like to write an introduction?

Well, yes, of course yes.

~ THE DEFINING OF DREAMS ~

Women of the Golden Age of Illustration: Florence Harrison

“The chief obstacle to a woman’s success is that she can never have a wife. Just reflect what a wife does for an artist.” ¹

~~~

“I see a little girl sitting on the grass, beneath the limes in the hot summer-tide, with eyes fixed on the far away blue hills, and seeing who knows what shapes there; for the boy by her side is reading to her wondrous stories of knight and lady, and fairy thing, that lived in the ancient days…” ²

~~~

“There is no earthly reason why women should not be illustrators.” ³

~~~

 

Come Unto These Yellow Sands – but mind the naked fairies…

A Few Words First

Most of my favourite newsletters are the ones I’ve not written. Not principally because some generous soul has spared me racing against looming deadlines, but because the texts written by talented authors who generously allow me to reproduce them here are always a delight to discover.

Charlotte Zeepvat is, in her own words, a “compulsive researcher, endlessly fascinated by finding things out, model maker, painter (never quite finding the skill to match the pictures in my head but still game to try) and would-be but probably-never-will-be illustrator, historian by training, writer, and collector of old photographs.” She writes books, occasionally illustrates them, and knows astonishing things about subjects few have heard of or even considered.

Charlotte has a web site, currently with hoarding all about and “Under Construction” signs up all around, and very politely declined my offer to list her books because they “probably won’t be of much interest to anyone who wants fantasy and fairies.” So, you’ll have to look up her work on your own. You can also take her qualification of “would-be but probably-never-will-be illustrator” with a grain of salt. Her artwork is detailed and exquisite.

But, in the meantime, read on, and do mind the fairies.

 

SHIPS IN THE AIR

Or a Short History of Flights of Fantasy

“…Give me the ships, with sails adapted to the heavenly wind; there will be fearless people, even if they face the immensity. And for those descendants who in short time will venture themselves by these ways we will prepare…” The words are from Johannes Kepler, written to Galileo Galilei in his “Dissertatio cum Nuncio Sidereo” published in 1610. Four centuries ago.

THE DREAM OF EMESE

Or An Intricate Intertwining of Threads

Many months ago, while investigating – if investigating is not too diligent-sounding a term for my somewhat directionless wanderings on the track of some mythological creature or other across the marches of cultural history – those wonderful places in time and geography where ancient cultures meet and exchange the greatest gift: the transference of elements of their beliefs from one to another, I stumbled across iconography all but identical from Persia and Hungary. I promptly sent a note to a friend and colleague from Budapest, asking if the tale of the Dream of Emese might ring a bell.

A SHOULDER TO LEAN ON

Or Reflections by a Vicarious Southpaw

After a half a century of diligent draughtsmanship one would think that much if not all of the process can be taken for granted. (Estimation based on the point where I most distinctly recall encountering my first major difficulties in drawing what I wished – a recalcitrant cow* - sure sign that it would never be possible to be fully satisfied with a drawing, meaning of course that the only choice left was to spend a lifetime or so working on it.)

TWO YEARS OR TWO THOUSAND MILES

... Whichever Come First
Or the Statistics of Art, Parentheses Parity and Pencil Parings

Two years ago today, I stepped off a plane in Wellington and said to myself “Well, I’m back.” It had been a while, clearly, and in all honesty, I thought at the time that now, two years along, I’d be repeating myself, but back on the other side of the globe…

THAT EXTRA DIMENSION

Or Imagining, Subtracting and Adding: the Arithmetic of Painting and Sculpture

Well, they’re back!

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Welcome to the NEWS section. Newsletters appear, weather permitting, once a month. Subjects vary, but only according to whim and circumstance. CHRONICLES archives the successive newsletters, OUT & ABOUT announces events and public appearances.

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• THE STUFF OF DREAMS
• BURNT ICE
• DISAPPEARING INTO THE INSTANT
• IMAGES WERE MAGIC ONCE
• DRAWING THE LINE SOMEWHERE
• STRANDS AND BROKEN SHELLS
• ABOUT THE MOVING OF MOUNTAINS
• SHIPS, SAILS AND FARAWAY PLANETS
• ~ THE DEFINING OF DREAMS ~
• Come Unto These Yellow Sands – but mind the naked fairies…
• SHIPS IN THE AIR
• THE DREAM OF EMESE
• A SHOULDER TO LEAN ON
• TWO YEARS OR TWO THOUSAND MILES
• THAT EXTRA DIMENSION

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