A prayer

In these difficult times, regardless of our faith (I include atheists and agnostics), we all pray for things to get better.
Here is the result of a small commission that a friend made to me some time ago.

Gold leaf on gesso, watercolor, pigments and arabic gum on paper.

The secret I'm looking for...

End of year, end of composition.
I'm done with the fragment of "L’Été" by Camus.
Partly in NEULAND, partly in Gothic, both scripts being inspired by Rudolf Koch.

Watercolou, iron gall ink and gouache on kraft paper.

And I take this opportunity to wish you a very good New Year's Eve & an excellent year 2020.

Just a J

Driven by my momentum in my border of filigrees, I composed this J.

Alizarin paint for the letter, a few gilded dots to bring light and a rectangle of filigrees to finish.

filigrees

Back to paperwork for an initial with filigrees. This is only a detail first because it isn't finished yet and second because I don't want to spoil the surprise for the person who will receive it.

The dark red circle is approximatively 2cm in diameter and I used a pattern found in the MS Espagnol 33 from the BNF, manuscript that we will study during this summer courses in my workshop.

Another fail !

Success is not guaranteed... 
Anyway, I have to show you the pictures of my latest failure, I'll restart soon, I already know how to improve it.

some text

I've been quite busy these last ime, preparing my latest exhibition but I didn't work only on this !
I worked very hard on a new project with quite a lot of text and in a much larger shape than what I'm used to. Until now, I spent about 30 hours working on it, I think I've done the most of it. Until I can say it is finished or failed, here is a picture.

Next steps next week if everything goes well.

Ar Rannou

I've just finished a work started years ago, that was left unfinished because of an overdose of knotwork.

It is a breton text from the Barzaz Breizh, a collection of songs published by Th. de La Villemarqué in the XIXth century.

I used a semi uncial for the text, séparating each verse by a knotwork panel and ending by the title in drawn capitals inspired by the Lindisfarne Gospel. To breathe modernity into the work, I took colors different from the ones used historically, using only earth pigments (Sienna, Umbria, ...).

Another detail can be seen here, and the whole work, there.

One does not see anything until one sees its beauty

A new sentence, this time from The Decay of lying by Oscar Wilde.
I took some pics of banks while walking, which inspired me while drawing the upper border. A bit of italic for the text and it's done.

to see the whole work, it's in the gallery.

A dream without stars ...

Third item of my series of sentences and second one by Paul Eluard.

This time, I used a flemish bastard script on a background made with bleach.

To see the whole work, click here.

Only throw angels to devils

As promised, a picture of one of the works done during the exhibition in Coulon.

It's a sentence by Paul Eluard, written with pigments and gum before being decorated with ... surprise ... filigrees :-)

To see the whole work, click here.

Orange

A sudden and hopefully temporary mood for color, the O of the orange

Forty

As a birthday card for a friend of mine who will soon reach the stage of 40, a little work with filigrees.

To see the whole thing, click here.

Happy Birthday

Today is my wife's birthday.
I worked in secret for quite a while on this little drawing and gave it to her this morning. And guess what ? She liked it !

Which proves that an imitation of a bad inkjet printing of an over-contrasted pic can be a good present ;-)

And here is a close-up so you can see the work on lines

As an information, the drawing has been made with a metal nib with a mix of pigment and arabic gum on kraft paper

Corpses of cities

At last, I'm done with the calligraphy of Giovanni Papini's short story, Corpses of cities.
I used most of my favourites techniques to do this job and I must say that I'm quite happy with the result.

Embossing on carbon paper

Zinc engraving and filigrees

To have a look to the whole work, click here.

Other close ups are available here and there.

If you want peace ...

Having started to thin out the leaves from the book entitled "Instruction du 1er janvier 1923 sur les grenades à l'usage des troupes de toutes armes" for a work on a poem by Léo Ferré, I'm left with a load of unused leaves which content is quite martial.
I decided to take advantage of this to work on the famous sentence : "Si vis pacem, para bellum".

To see the whole work, follow this link.

Initial

While waiting for inspiration for more ambitious works, I continue with filigrees. This time it is a V and in blue shades to change a bit from the usual B&W.

To see the whole thing, click here.

Poem by Léo Ferré

As I told you last week, I've been working on the poem Des Armes by Léo Ferré and it's now finished.

I started with a collage of leaves from a book found at a secondhand bookseller which title is "Training of the 1st january 1923 on the grenades for use by troops from any army", I found it would make a perfect background for this poem which title could be translated into "Weapons".
I eventually added the text, using a revisited NEULAND, I will soon post a model of it for those who would like to follow me.
Till then, to see the whole work, have a look in the gallery.

The Flies - final version

I've just finished with my version of the text from The Flies by Jean-Paul Sartre.

You can see the whole work by clicking here.

As it is quite long, one cannot really see anything on this pic, that's why I took close-ups :

first one

second one

third one

fourth one

something to tell to someone

Initial on zinc - next step

A first attempt to decorate my initial with white filigrees on a black paper background.

I fixed temporarily the initial with a piece of adhesive so as to be able to create several versions.