[...]
"Away, away, from men and towns,
To the wild wood and the downs -
To the silent wilderness
Where the soul need not repress
Its music, lest it should not find
An echo in another's mind,
While the touch of Nature's art
Harmonizes heart to heart."
[...]
Percy Bysshe Shelley
Yes! I took a walk in a forest. And as the title says, at some times I thought I was in the The Cure song. I imagined walking through the dangerous woods of Twin Peaks houuuhh...
But surprisingly at some other places it was so snowy and heavenly white. It was like in Three Hazelnuts For Cinderella. What a pity, there was no horse to take a ride to my prince in the colourful leggings.
In the last pictures the trees almost don't look like trees anymore, the twigs remind me of corals.
Was a nice walk at least, escaping from ordinary things.
At the beginnig of the 19th century Central Europe was stirred by the revolution. The Church and the Christian religion lost their position. As a consequence, the European intellectuals were in search of new values, new ideas and new perceptions of the Divine. They rediscovered old, mystic cultures like the Egypts. Their guiding princilpe was „Ex Oriente Lux“, which means „From the East comes light“. Furthermore, the whole arabic culture appealed the Europeans with its stories of Arabian Nights and its peregrine magic.
After the conquest of Algeria, Eugène Delacroix was sent there by King Louis Philippe in order to paint his impressions (You all know Delacroix from his most famous painting, Liberty Leading the People: the lady with naked boobs holding the French flag.) He captured the bright volours, the unfamiliar lights and the special architecture and costume of the country. On this canvas, he provides an insight into a typical setting of a harem with opulently dressed and beautiful women. Topics like this were quite popular at that time.
This time, I tried a comic-like minimlistic drawing. Otherwise it would have taken a long long time to draw this because it is so detailed. Well, and I tried a little to capture an impression of the colours. That was quite unpromising, because Delacroix actually did a good job. You can feel the dusty sand in the air and the sun on the roof. That‘s what‘s fascinating me about great paintings. They are sometimes more intense than reality.
Sur l'onde calme et noire où dorment les étoiles
La blanche Ophélia flotte comme un grand lys,
Flotte très lentement, couchée en ses longs voiles ...
- On entend dans les bois lointains des hallalis.
Voici plus de mille ans que la triste Ophélie
Passe, fantôme blanc, sur le long fleuve noir;
Voici plus de mille ans que sa douce folie
Murmure sa romance à la brise du soir.
Le vent baise ses seins et déploie en corolle
Ses grands voiles bercés mollement par les eaux;
Les saules frissonnants pleurent sur son épaule,
Sur son grand front rêveur s'inclinent les roseaux.
Les nénuphars froissés soupirent autour d'elle;
Elle éveille parfois, dans un aune qui dort,
Quelque nid, d'où s'échappe un petit frisson d'aile:
- Un chant mystérieux tombe des astres d'or.
[...]
... the first part of Arthur Rimbauds poem Ophélie. I like it because of its morbid and romantic charm. And as you can see, it therefore inspired the name of my blog!
I posted some impressions of this melancholic season. I‘m not able to show any new drawing or text for I was sick the whole last week and I felt so bad I couldn‘t move a finger. It is a general problem that every single post is a lot of work for me and the breaks between are a little long. In future, I will try to fill these gaps with some other stuff like i.e. photos, inspirations,...
The Annunciation is an often repeated subject in Art History, especially in Renaissance paintings. Over the years, certain iconographic devices were developped for this scene, basing on the Holy Scripture and apocryhic texts.* In the Gospel of Luke, Archangel Gabriel announces virgin Maria the birth of Jesus Chris. The Angel on Botticellis canvas is kneeling in front of Maria and demonstrates by that Maria's divine status. He is holding white lilies which symbolize virginity. Maria is also demonstrating humility by showing her palms, lowering her eyes and taking a bow.
Maria is just standing in front of an opened book, as said in the Apocrypha, she is reading Psalms. Her garments are blue and red, the colours of God and Jesus.
I thought using watercolour was a good way to pick important colours. It seemed to me quite interesting drawing the Virgin Mother with a ballpoint pen because of the contrast of a sublime subjet and rough elaboration. I was inspired by the drawings of Conrad Keely, singer of ...And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead (his works are incredible!). And damn, it was tough! It‘s obvious why, you can‘t correct any mistake. I got really (really!) angry about every wrong line and unfortunately Maria's hands are now too small and not everything is at it‘s best (yes, seems as if I was a little perfectionist :) ).
* texts that haven‘t been affiliated to the biblic canon
