White swallow all around

Yesterday afternoon I drew these birds on white paper. Charcoal and gouache all around, four times. Drawing: 1.5 x 1.5 inch (4 x 4 cm).

White on white

 One coat of white gouache all around later

 Two coats of white gouache all around later

 Three coats of white gouache all around later

 Four coats of white gouache all around later

I like the smell of gouache.

Modern architecture of Tokyo

After World War II great strides were made in modern Japanese architecture, not only in advanced technology, allowing earthquake resistant tall buildings, but expressing and infusing characteristics of traditional Japanese architecture in modern buildings.
– Harry Seidler

Photos (with Instagram, Brannan filter most of the time) by Hiroshi Endo.

Aerial view of Nihonbashi after Great Kanto earthquake from the book Photograph collection of Great Kanto earthquake published by Yoshikawa Kobunkan.

« Architecture in Tokyo has largely been shaped by Tokyo's history. Twice in recent history has the metropolis been left in ruins: first in the 1923 Great Kanto earthquake and later after extensive firebombing in World War II. Because of this, Tokyo's current urban landscape is one of modern and contemporary architecture, and older buildings are scarce.»



Modern architecture

The same mistake

I was very excited this morning by this project: miniature water lily paintings.

Framed with tiny branches, bathing in the sink.

Tiny branches freshly picked yesterday afterning / evenoon
at beautiful Parc La Fontaine with two friends.

First a dark navy blue background is painted on pieces of Balsa wood.

Then the water lilies appear. The same mistake subtlety also appears…

They look nice, right? Pretty happy with that I was.

But wait…

Since I have to cut the wood, we can already see that once again (as I've done with my miniature embroidered flowers…) the work is made too tightly! Not enough space, the flower has no breath, arrwhgg.

Too bad, I decided to frame the miniature paintings even if I made the same mistake, too curious to see how they'll look surrounded by a (tight) branch wooden frame.

Thank you for your interest in my work (in progress).

The erroneous FRAMED miniature water lily paintings will be revealed soon!

On the floors of the city

My new work: miniature flower painting on Balsa wood, framed with small branches picked on the floors of the city where I live. Do you think these flowers have something to share with water lilies?

width:1.25 inch (3,2 cm) - height:1.75 inch (4,4 cm)

Thank you for your interest in my art.

What a beautiful summer day here in Montreal! Blue and white sky, delicious warm winds. I have a thousand things to do. Before the storm.

New work: two (or three) miniature bird drawings

width: 1.25 inch - height: 1 inch

 width: 1.75 inch - height: 1 inch

With 01 drawing pen and colored pencils.

http://www.wikihow.com/Draw-a-Swan

Next time, maybe I'll go there before publishing new work-in-progress Swans…

Thank you for your interest in my work.

Close-ups in white

I found I could say things with color and shapes that I couldn't say any other way - things I had no words for.
– Georgia O'Keeffe

Name: Georgia Totto O'Keeffe (1887-1986)
Field: painting 
Nationality: American 
Art Movement: Precisionism
School or Group: Stieglitz group

« She revolutionized the tradition of flower painting in the 1920s by making large-format paintings of enlarged blossoms, presenting them close up as if seen through a magnifying lens.» (Wikipedia)

Georgia O'Keeffe's white flowers, HUGE oil paintings

Georgia O'Keeffe: A Portrait - Photo by Alfred Stieglitz

« O'Keeffe turned to working more representationally in the 1920s in an effort to move her critics away from Freudian interpretations. Her earlier work had been mostly abstract, but works such as Black Iris III (1926) evoke a veiled representation of female genitalia while also accurately depicting the center of an iris. Moreover, the centers of flowers are androgynous and can hardly be understood exclusively as feminine.»

« O'Keeffe consistently denied the validity of Freudian interpretations of her art. Although 1970s feminists celebrated O'Keeffe as the originator of female iconography, O'Keeffe rejected their celebration of her work and refused to cooperate with any of their projects.»

« What they were saying sounded too much to her like what the men had written about it in the 1910s and 1920s and overlooked the larger issue: that her paintings reveal vital parallels between animate and highly sensual forces in nature and humans.» (Wikipedia)

I truly understand and agree with her position: artists are not necessarily here to dictate what kind of political citizen we should be; they are meant to introduce us to the golden hive of the invisible.

We are the bees of the invisible. We wildly collect the honey of the visible, to store it in the great golden hive of the invisible.

– Rainer Maria Rilke

Black Iris III (1926)

Swallow tattoo

Diving Swallow Tattoo Logo

« The swallow has always had a symbolic meaning for sailors because these birds were usually the first sign that land was near (before modern navigation technology). A swallow tattoo for a sailor reflected his hope of coming home safely.

The origins of the swallow tattoo go back to a ship named The Swallow. At one time, the crew of the ship had a mutiny. In order to recognize each other, the 7 mutineers who started the mutiny had a swallow tattooed on their chest.  After that, the swallow tattoo was the tattoo design for sailors to show off their sailing experience. Every five thousand nautical miles (5750 miles or 9250 km), a sailor traditionally has a swallow tattooed onto his chest.» Source

« Therefore, each captain looking for new crew members are always happy to see a sailor with two swallows tattooed on his chest. Swallow noble bird, with a rich history. This is a symbol of honor, faith, love and hope. For the sailors in the past, it represents all of the luck for loyalty. This serves as a reminder of family, friendship and honor. Swallow tattoo is a sign of eternal life, love and hope. This represents the courage and eternal happiness.» Source

 Swallow tattoo design by Igovictor

 free tattoo designs dot org

 Swallow tattoo design by A_T_G_4

 Swallow tattoo design by The taste of blood

 Swallow tattoo design by Svartavarginnan

Swallow drawing by Rebecca Lee

 free tattoo designs dot org

 Swallow tattoo design by Steven Worthey

 Swallow tattoo design by Bigman19

 Swallow tattoo design by Nirac

 Swallow tattoo design by Pipenagos

Swallow drawing by Nikki Porter

 Swallow drawing by Ima

✍

O Swallow, flying from the golden woods,   
Fly to her, and pipe and woo her, and make her mine,   
And tell her, tell her, that I follow thee.

(…)

Alfred Tennyson