Well we have just arrived back on the mountain. It feels so nice to be home, but also to be home where there is power, no cyclonic winds and things just work. Sometimes it is good to experience the loss or lack of things to let you appreciate them more.
I apologise for my interweb absence - not aways easy when on the road and visiting lots; but I hope to do a proper catch up soon.
In Sydney I attended a two day workshop with Massimo Pollelo - a gentle and generous man who shared his elegant and expressive approach to calligraphy with us. I really like a couple of things in the workshop - firstly we started with a book, and we finished with a book. That is a very nice cycle for me. We studied different 15th century manuscripts and worked with them and made them modern and expressive, and then captured a lot of our experiments into a book or two. I like having books.
Secondly I really liked that we based our work on a real manuscript, we studied how the letters were formed and what were the key characteristics of the hand; then we did 'modern' things. I really liked that we didn't just start doing gorgeous things - we started with a really old hand, and used it as the basis for creating a beautiful modern and expressive hand. I liked that link and I liked knowing that my marks were based in something that had been around for a long time. Its nice to be connected across the ages.
Anyhow here are a few samples of some of what we did - I hope to share more properly soon.
Firstly we has to try and copy the original hand in the manuscript... not easy and it certainly didn't feel elegant.
Along the way we were asked to enlarge it and compress it.
I then changed nibs and inks and tried to do some widening of the occasional letter... I do love how the wet ink still glistens in this shot!
After quite a few other challenges and tests, we then exploded the alphabet and created this sort of thing...
Which is really quite remarkable. My main quote in the earlier images was a Martin Luther King quote "Peace is not only a distant goal that we seek; but a means by which we achieve that goal". By the time we were exploding alphabets I was working only with the word peace - and it is interesting to see the marks and shapes I achieved using only that word.
And then of course I love photographs of tools...
I am looking forward to catching my breath and catching up on what others have been up to, and to replying to comments left! Many thanks all.
I apologise for my interweb absence - not aways easy when on the road and visiting lots; but I hope to do a proper catch up soon.
In Sydney I attended a two day workshop with Massimo Pollelo - a gentle and generous man who shared his elegant and expressive approach to calligraphy with us. I really like a couple of things in the workshop - firstly we started with a book, and we finished with a book. That is a very nice cycle for me. We studied different 15th century manuscripts and worked with them and made them modern and expressive, and then captured a lot of our experiments into a book or two. I like having books.
Secondly I really liked that we based our work on a real manuscript, we studied how the letters were formed and what were the key characteristics of the hand; then we did 'modern' things. I really liked that we didn't just start doing gorgeous things - we started with a really old hand, and used it as the basis for creating a beautiful modern and expressive hand. I liked that link and I liked knowing that my marks were based in something that had been around for a long time. Its nice to be connected across the ages.
Anyhow here are a few samples of some of what we did - I hope to share more properly soon.
Firstly we has to try and copy the original hand in the manuscript... not easy and it certainly didn't feel elegant.
Along the way we were asked to enlarge it and compress it.
I then changed nibs and inks and tried to do some widening of the occasional letter... I do love how the wet ink still glistens in this shot!
After quite a few other challenges and tests, we then exploded the alphabet and created this sort of thing...
Which is really quite remarkable. My main quote in the earlier images was a Martin Luther King quote "Peace is not only a distant goal that we seek; but a means by which we achieve that goal". By the time we were exploding alphabets I was working only with the word peace - and it is interesting to see the marks and shapes I achieved using only that word.
And then of course I love photographs of tools...
I am looking forward to catching my breath and catching up on what others have been up to, and to replying to comments left! Many thanks all.
Exquisite handwriting and scripts. What an enchanting experience this must have been for you. I'm not quite sure how something you create or write couldn't 'feel' elegant, when Fiona - your work is all of elegant and more. Know this!!
ReplyDeleteThank you Louise - I shall try to know this! Enchanting is a lovely word and so apt - I definitely felt those ooh and ahh moments; little exclamations of delight when magic happened and appeared, and moments when I really liked what I had managed to achieve. Yum.
Deletetooooooooooools
ReplyDeleteYou would understand Ronnie about how many photos I took of beautiful tool arrangements and messes...sigh.
DeleteA fascinating process, I think it takes lots of courage to work from something as beautiful as that manuscript. I probably would shrink in a corner biting my nails. The shot I like the most is of your word 'peace', apparently written with almost invisible ink. I love the gentle nuances and shades.
ReplyDeleteIt is indeed a challenge to go back and work with something that has its own beauty and then try to firstly replicate it then make it take off Ersi. Still, we were guided gently and well. That soft and muted piece was a definite favourite - written using the rinse water of the walnut ink ...
DeleteSounds like your kind of workshop. Beautiful exercises.
ReplyDeleteIndeed it was Jo - working with words and books and letters and ink and paper...
DeleteF-agree with Ersi - the last one is so subtle - quiet peace. B
ReplyDeleteQuiet peace - just what we need more of B. Thank you!
DeleteCan't wait to see and to touch! Just beautiful.
ReplyDeleteThanks Susan - it was just what I needed and had longed for...
DeleteOh, how great! I love seeing some of these examples inspired by old manuscripts. Shapes from the past moving into the future....
ReplyDeleteOh yes Annie - it was great! That was one of my favourite things - I felt just like we were moving shapes from the past into the future - perfect description! It felt good to always have in the back of my mind the basic shapes and structures of the original letters - these formed the basis for my explorations and I just kept coming back to them.
DeleteThis looks like a great workshop Fiona,and the manuscript and work you produced is beautiful - almost makes me want to pick up the calligraphic tools myself again.....I still have them all, as I love tools too and can't bear to part with them.
ReplyDeleteHi Helen, it really was inspiring and helpful and encouraging - all good things from a workshop. And yes, the tools. Don't you just love jewellers' tools? Even dentists' tools are beautiful to look at..
Deletecalligraphy magic...i do understand the exercises you went through and see how valuable they were. i wish my letterforming was anything but the disaster it has always been--
ReplyDeleteThanks Velma - it was beautiful to observe the way the script changed and became something different...each step along the way was a wonderful exploration and surprise.
DeleteFascinating process from ancient to new. Love it. Beautiful, too, what you did with the challenge!!
ReplyDeleteThanks Valerianna - I liked the progression from old to new, and loved what appeared by the end.
DeleteRinse water! Serendipity, that's what that is.
ReplyDeleteAnd I do think there is much to be said for learning the old way in that we can only bend the rules when we know them.
wanders off, chuckling about dirty old rinse water...
Keep on chuckling Di! I love those moments when you discover that something one would throw out actually produces the most beautiful marks...
DeleteAnd I agree completely - I always think you need to know the rules before breaking them - otherwise it's often just a mess.
Sigh....sigh.... longer sigh.... just wonderful....sigh....
ReplyDeleteHi Lesley - I can feel your longing. He was very good...and the the whole thing quite wonderful.
DeleteFiona....well, my apologies for such a long absence from your delightful blog. Sounds like a wonderful calligraphy workshop! And I agree, finding those connections across time, that what you do has its own long tradition is very important. Welcome home!!!
ReplyDeleteHi Patti- nice to hear from you and yes it is good to be home. The traditions across the ages felt good, and I enjoyed bringing this work forward in time...
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