Meissen Style Paintings

Last two months I received a set of four blank porcelain dishes in a meeting of Ontario Porcelain Artists Guild. These dishes were left by one of our senior members, who was passed away months ago.  I think it is good to make sure of them and turn them into some "nice things".

Behind each dish, it is marked as "Hutschenrzuther, Germany, Dresden". I think the plate should be painted in Meissen style to match the origin of manufacturing. This time I painted Uwe Geissler's studies onto these beautiful dishes.  The studies are Honeysuckle, Forget Me Not, Sweet Peas and Iris.  The topics are identified based on the colour tone, i.e. red/purple and blue/purple.

Vivid yellow red stands out the contour of splitted Honeysuckle flowerings. 

Nice red purple flower petals

Tiny blue florets - Forget Me Not - how can I forget?  

Beautiful English Iris standing tall and high

La Sagrada Famillia Part III - Cryptogram

One of my friends asked me what a 4 X 4 number board hung outside the Basilica was.  When I bought my admission tickets and walked up to the entrance, I saw it with the geometric statues. I didn't pay much attention, until I visited the Basilica museum.

The museum introduced this cryptogram which was invented by Josep Maria Subirachs.  It is a board with multiple combinations of numbers that always add up to 33.  This is the age of Christ in his death.

If you take a close look, there are two sets of repeated numbers i.e. 10, 14;  When they are added to 48, the same result as the addition of the letters of JNRI [Jesus Nazarenus Rex ludaeorum] according to the numerical order of the Latin alphabet.

La Sagrada Familia Part II

A church is the only thing worthy of representing the feelings of a people, for religion is the highest thing in people. 

Antoni Gaudi

When people is talking about religion, they find it's another way of nagging them, another way of lifestyle or else.  On different perspective, those who devote themselves to their religions or even their church, are really into it.  I am talking about into it, it isn't just into something like a new technology gaget, TV program, gambling or else. These people are really involved wholeheartedly and even express their gratitude in diversified ways.  Antoni Gaudi, an artist? an architect? He is a historic persona who I have recently started to know.  He used his expertise and knowledge to design a church with all the elements relating to the Mother Nature.  His imagination is beyond most people's.  While I still think the classical look of the Catholic churches should be built with nice marble, mosaic and perfectly carved gigantic sculpture.  Antoni's style - La Sagrada Familia is a blast.

One of the Antoni's design is the columns amazes me. Inside the Temple, there are many columns supporting the ceiling. These columns are designed from the inspiration of trees.  They all standing inside the area, form a forest surrounding.  You will see [in the following photos] a round shape on the tree's trunk, which is a scar form by cutting off a branch.   This design is amazingly corporated into the Temple.


In the ceiling, it is full of round shape with zig zag edges. They represent leaves. A canopy of leaves, the branches and the trunks create a natural yet organic environment for believers to shelter us from the sunshine and rain.

Once upon a time, God creates plants, trees, ocean and human beings, basically the Nature. Vice versa, Basilica reflects the human beings create this church figuratively by the use of the Nature [e.g. tree-like columns]. Is this a way of contributing to God back?

Another amazing thing makes me fallen in a deep thought - the building has been continuously built since 1882 along with difficulties and challenges. Nowadays the society has been encouraged with the conception of “multi-tasking” and “efficiency” and finish tasks in a limited of time. It leads us to be less patience, less persistent and less focused. Sometimes an old perspective may not be a worse thing, it may inspire you in meaningful way and appreciate what we have in this moment. 

For more details, please visit at La Sagrada Familia Museum website. 

Please feel free to visit the album of my Facebook page.

La Sagrada Familia Part I

Hi all, I haven't written any post at Blogger quite a long time since two years. I think it is time to start again.

I just came back from Barcelona, Spain at the beginning of this month.  This is my second trip to Europe and it can be called as my journey of art exploration.  Almost each of tiny rock inspired me. [excuse my exaggeration] 

I want to introduce one of my favorite masterpiece, Sagrada Familia (Basilica I Temple Expiatori de la Sagrada Familia) in this trip.  Before I visited the Basilica, I wasn’t motivated to get in there after seeing a long line up outside the entrance. Then, with my husband’s persuasion, I revisited there another day, very early in the morning!  The line up wasn’t bad, just about ten minutes wait.  Once we got inside the entrance, we crazily took pictures to the building as any tourists.  At that time, I still didn’t have a big feeling about it. Compared to Vatician in Rome, there were some figurines of unusal styles and shapes.  When I got inside the church, the columns, stainglasses and altar were really varied than what I saw in Paris, Florence and Rome. I kept telling to myself there might be a reason why the church was built in this way. So, I started opening up my mind to the story behind this creation.

The construction of Sagrada Familia was begun in 1882. Then Antoni Gaudi became involved in 1883 and took over the project & adopted his own style.  It combines Gothic & Art Nonveau forms. Until 1926, Gaudi was died and the construction wasn’t finished.  At that time less than a quarter of the project was completed. Even though Gaudi was died, the building of the church still followed his original idea.

Supported by private donations, this project was going on slowly. Intermittently, Spanish Civil War was broken out, along with other challenges as well. It was expected to be finished until 2026, i.e. the centennial of Gudi’s death. [For more details, please visit at La Sagrada Familia Museum website. 

Please feel free to visit the album of my Facebook page.

[to be continued]

Joining iCraft.com

Today I set up a storefront at www.iCraft.ca/chinapainting. This is my only store offering custom order and local pickup service. In case you don't know, I live in Toronto, Canada.

Recently I heard a lot of new online stores coming into the internet world, e.g. craftisart.com. Most of them are US based. iCraft.ca suits perfectly my local marketing needs. In this way, Toronto people can pick up their orders without paying any shipping charge.

Also, I start painting accent tiles for household kitchens and bathrooms locally. I personally prefer the tiles ordered from http://www.olympiatile.com/. In this way, the thickness of my accent tile can be consistent with the rest of backsplash. You can see my painted accent tiles at one of my posts, My New Renovated Kitchen.

If any artist or artisan is interested in joining iCraft, please enter My referral key: 97b8e11cad. Then you will immediately receive 6-months of FREE unlimited product postings on the site.

CREATORS' MARKETPLACE 2010

Before Mother's Day, I am going to attend the Creator's Marketplace show and to join a silent auction there. The admission fee is $5 per adult while the kids are free of charge. Please print the following coupon of $1.00 off for your admission.

See you there.

The Creator's Marketplace Show & Sale

Date: Saturday May 1st, 2010 12pm-6pm

Place: Thornhill Community Centre Hall, 7755 Bayview Ave. Markham, Ontario
Featuring:
-8400 sq. ft. of original and hand-made art, jewellery, toys, clothing and more!

-Silent auction with proceeds going to The Foundation Fighting Blindness.

-Lots of FREE parking.

Admission $5* Children under 12 FREE!

For more details, please visit at http://www.creators-marketplace.com/