Month: October 2019

Magical Leonardo

During my London trip I managed to get a slot to see the Da Vinci drawings in the Queen’s Gallery.

Marking the 500th anniversary of the death of Leonardo da Vinci, this exhibition showed more than 200 of the Renaissance master’s greatest drawings in the Royal Collection. There was but one word to describe them: they were magical.

 

 

 

Loving works on paper as I do, I literally did not know where to look first: there were the most delicate flowers and plants, drawn with the precision of a botanist, yet filled with life in a unique way. It was a known fact that if Leonardo had to put a few flowers in the corner of a painting, he made dozens of studies before deciding which to use. Look at those acorns below, they seem to glow on the page.

 

 

 

Then there were maps which must have made the adventure-loving amongst his peers long to go off and explore.

 

 

The drawings in the Royal Collection used to be bound up in a book that was acquired by Charles II. The pages have now been separated so that the drawings can be shown in their full beauty. They provide an extraordinary insight into the workings of Leonardo’s mind and reflect the full range of his interests, including painting, sculpture, architecture, anatomy, engineering, cartography, geology and botany.

See below his scheme on how to breach a fortress’s walls.

 

Continue reading “Magical Leonardo”

Farewell to Sophia Kokosalaki

Greece and the international fashion world are mourning the death from cancer of hugely respected designer Sophia Kokosalaki. She was 46.

 

 

Sophia was born in Athens in 1972 and, after studying at the University of Athens, she moved to London to enroll in the Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design.
She eventually evolved into a widely admired designer who drew on her Greek roots in producing classical silhouettes and artful drapery, which won various awards during her career.

 

 

Sophia was designated chief clothing designer for the summer Olympic Games in Athens in 2004, where she dressed thousands of athletes and performers for the opening and closing ceremonies, honoring Greek myth, history and culture before a global audience. Most spectacular was singer Björk’s “Ocean Dress” with its frothy and swirling pale azure plissé pleats.

 

 

She worked as creative director for various fashion houses, including Vionet and the Diesel Black Gold label, but was mostly known for her own label. She also designed the cabin crew uniforms for Aegean Airlines, as well as fine jewelry and a bridal collection.

She is survived by her partner and daughter.

 

Björk photo from The Independent. All other photos Google.

Inktober 2019

Two years ago I wrote about Inktober, an Instagram challenge where people have to post a daily ink drawing. There is a list of daily prompts, which are in no way obligatory, and any ink medium goes: fountain pen, biro, brush, micro liner, dip pen. You can add watercolor, collage or anything else. There are no rules and no prizes – it’s a fun thing.

I have never yet managed to post something on all the days, and I’m only intermittently inspired by the prompts, but I always determine to take part, because I enjoy the whole camaraderie going on. It pushes me to experiment, and I always feel I’ll do better next year. At the end of the month I’ll share some of my masterpieces with you, but meanwhile, I would like to present some exceptional artists and illustrators, who mostly follow the prompts with humor and imagination. I’ve noted the particular prompt for each drawing.
So, without further delay, here are:
The incomparable Nina and her stripey men. Prompt: Enchanted.
Simon Curd whose small monsters come with a little poem each day. Prompt:Swing
Kate Richardson with more monsters, happy ones. Prompt: Swing
Monica Rathke at Whosebirthdayisit. Prompt: Husky
David Bülow at bulow_ink with his architectural perspectives. Prompt: Bait
And for something a little more gothic, Aleks Klepnev. No prompt. 

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Click on the URLs if you want to see more of each – definitely worth it, and a fun way to pass the time on a Sunday afternoon. There are many others to be found, some follow prompts and some not, but it’s always fascinating to see the different reactions people have to the same prompt.

More Gormley

The British sculptor Anthony Gormley seems to be everywhere these days. Sadly, I never managed to get to Delos to see his fantastic installation (for those who missed my post on this, you can find it here), because Delos is not easy to access. However, I took the opportunity to see his lovely exhibition at the Royal Academy  in London.

 

 

There were many of his ubiquitous depictions of the human body in various forms:

 

 

Some upside down

 

 

Walking on the ceiling.

 

 

But also some large and impressive installations:

 

Visitors were invited to walk through this one.

The one below looked like an alien vessel – an impressive 6 tons of steel rods suspended from the ceiling, dwarfing the people  beneath.

 

 

 

You could also walk through this next one, via the rectangular opening leading into a narrow steel tunnel, in almost total darkness – if you weren’t claustrophobic, that is.

 

 

But I mostly loved its architectural shapes, framed by the arched doorway.

 

 

 

Another installation featured a room flooded with Atlantic seawater on a bed of clay from Buckinghamshire. In general, the installations were  site-specific, fitting beautifully into the shape of each room.

 

 

Wall art included the work below, made with clay on a blanket, which had a fleeting, haunting aura.

 

 

The one below was not one of my favorites, but intriguing nonetheless, since it was made out of slices of bread dipped in wax:

 

 

 

Finally, for someone like me who loves works on paper, there was an abundance of treasures on offer, including a multitude of small spiral notebooks where Gormley recorded his ideas (these proved impossible to photograph, since they were presented in glass cases).

 

 

 

These drawings were made with charcoal and casein.

 

 

Deceptively simple,

 

 

But very evocative.

 

 

And there was a whole, luminous series made with earth mixed with linseed oil.

 

 

I came away most inspired.

 

 

Highly recommended, if you’re anywhere nearby.