I am making progress on my materials for the course on 12th century initials and filigrees that will take place next April.
But, of course, nothing beats creating to put into practice the elements found in the manuscripts. So here is a small piece of a work in progress.
Yes, it’s green (sometimes you have to get out of your comfort zone), soon a complete view of this composition and, in the meantime, you can already register for the course at the Arche de Saint-Antoine.
I am very happy to have been asked by IAMPETH for the second year in a row to participate to IAMPETH Virtual, a set of 12 one-hour demos, online and in English with 12 professionals from all over the world.
I’ll be talking (again) about filigrees but this time about a rather special pattern, spirals!!!
It looks like a movie title, the umpteenth of a too long series when the writers have lost all inspiration and the producers are pressing for a last opus in order to make the license a little more profitable.
No such mercantile practices here!
I propose you a course :
– in person, because it is time to get back to meeting people in real life
– in Isère (France), in this wonderful little medieval village of Saint-Antoine l’Abbaye, at the Arche community which will provide full board accommodation
– in April 2023 (from 21 to 23) to celebrate Anselm, Abdiesus and George
– in English and French so that everyone can enjoy it
– in pairs because Cecilia Boschi will propose a course of Italian bastarda at the same place and at the same time
We will take advantage of this conjunction to offer you shared moments of demonstrations, conferences, exchanges…
But I haven’t told you what I’m going to talk about yet, have I?
Oh well, no.
So the subject will be the initials and filigrees of the 12th century, we are at the end of the Romanesque period, we feel the Gothic coming but we are still far from it, the colors and forms are still rich and varied.
For more information, you can consult the dedicated page.
Registration is open and can be done on the Arche website.
You may have heard of the Book of Hours of the Duke of Visconti, a beautiful Italian manuscript from the late 14th century.
You may even have studied fragments of it, whether it be the magnificent rotunda gothic of the text or the countless elements of decoration and illumination.
But do you really know it?
What is this snake that seems to be holding a child in its mouth?
What does the word dompne mean in the last line? And does a scribe make a lot of mistakes in copying?
Who is this “woman” with three faces?
Where are the beautiful capital letters (including the Y) in this manuscript?
Who are these fiery characters?
What do all these abbreviations mean?
to answer all these questions and many more, you can register for my zoom conference on February 13 at 6pm (replay available for a week) by clicking here
I have been neglecting you lately, I apologise.
I’m posting on social networks because it’s quicker than describing my whole journey and taking the time to really address you here.
So a new message so that those who are not on those evil networks can see that I am still thinking of them.
These days I’m working on a commission from the town hall of Plouider, a small seaside town in Finistère. I like this township, they plant a tree for each birth in the township and asked me to calligraph the children’s names so that we can know which tree corresponds to whom. I did it last year and will do it again this year.
But today, it is another project: to calligraph 3 fragments of poems about the chapels and to put them around the Saint Fiacre chapel. The order is to do it on slate, it’s up to me to choose how.
So I decided to use Art Nouveau lettering and acrylic paint on large 40x40cm slates. The advantage is that I will be able to use the same layout for the 3 poems and thus have a unity of treatment that I would have had more difficulty in obtaining with another writing.
Here is the first text, a french translation of Shakespeare.
And whilst I’ve got your attention, I’d like to talk about something completely different. I have been selected to participate in the Write on the Edge International Calligraphy Conference in Sonoma, USA, next summer, and as part of that I have just answered a number of questions about my practice. You can find the transcript of this conversation here. And if you want to register for the courses, you can find the description of my two contributions here and there.
