The lion is not safe

K Fisher (2016), Program Cover design, Generation Edinburgh Dance Show [A5]

My Asiatic lion. My grumpy lion who turned his back and face to me for 3 hours. But then, his lioness started looking at me. His interest was piqued. I could see him begin to turn his shaggy maned face my way. At first, a little bit of a profile, then a huge yawn with his tongue lolling out, then a full turning of the head and direct eye to eye contact. Got you! I knew after 3 hours or more of lying down, he was going to have to get up and walk. I waited. Hoping, hoping, hoping. Just his face was not going to be enough. Up he gets, yes! And then I follow him with my camera, snapping every shot, not wanting to miss a movement. He's now in the shelter. I can just see his tail flaring about in the other room. Barely make out that he is rolling about on his back on the straw. Come on, stop hiding. Please come out. And then suddenly his big, perfectly made, furry face is staring straight out at me. Through the glass. I snap another shot. He immediately exits the shelter, he's roaring. So loud, such an incredibly deep roar, that when I dash out to the viewing platform, his roar is vibrating through the floor boards. I can see him through the cracks in the wooden boards under my feet. This lion is not safe. His power, the danger. I am safe only because of these boards, this fence, this glass. Majestic, glorious, beautiful, good even, but not safe. I get the message.

Pushing Out

Here is the work that I have submitted for the 119th Annual Exhibition of the Society of Scottish Artists 2016. It would be great to get shortlisted for the exhibition, but if I don't succeed, I will continue to work hard and try again next year!

My new project is a short-term one and is to design a cover for the year end show of my friend's dance school. Excellent excuse to be trawling youtube for videos of the world's best dancers, particularly break and robot.

K Fisher (2016) Pushing Out Egg tempera on canvas [100 x 100 cm]

K Fisher (2016) (Detail of) Pushing Out Egg tempera on canvas

Ever get the feeling someone is trying to tell you something?

On the way back from Glasgow on the train. Why does it always rain when I visit Glasgow? This is the first time I have blogged on mobile and the font looks massive on the screen so let's hope this works out.

The submission deadline for this painting is looming. I've got work to do on the final elements on the painting. I'm not even sure it will hold together in the end. This is the last bit of the medieval inspired elements. I feel slightly guilty that this was the first thing I found but it was also exactly what I wanted.

The other question I have, besides why does it always rain when I visit Glasgow, is do you ever think someone is trying to tell you something but you can't figure out exactly what they are trying to say? Or am I being too stubborn to admit I know what it means and I don't want to do what I'm told?

You know how the past couple of blogs I've been talking about boats and fish and images of Jesus calling the fishermen to follow him. And then I went to my dear friend Sarah's pop up create a sculpture event, which I think she did fabulous at, and I was looking around St Peter's church in Lutton Place and lo and behold I looked up and saw this.

Mmm, what am I meant to do with this recurring theme? Maybe in time my painting will tell me what this is about. Hopefully my next blog post you'll actually get to see it and you can tell me what you think!

Fish and the Medieval Bestiary

There is so much to discover today! I know so little about medieval art and there is so much to see. I have just discovered the existence of the Medieval Bestiary - a compendium of beasts.The Bestiary illustrated animals, birds and even rocks, usually accompanied by a moral lesson (per Wikipedia).

Alongside this I have found and only very much skimmed the surface of the British Catalogue of Illuminated Manuscripts and Kitab Aja'ib Al-Makhluqat Wa Gharaib Al-Mawjudat literally "The Wonders of Creation and the Curiosities of Existence" here. See below one of the pieces by the author, Abu Yahya Zakariya ibn Muhammad ibn Mahmud-al-Qazwini (ca. 1203-1283 CE), known as al-Qazwini.

These discoveries have resulted from my research on medieval fish images today. I am beginning to wonder if this burgeoning obsession with fish and boats derives from my surname Fisher and my peasant ancestry. Maybe I am trying to on some level trace my roots. I also came across this image and article A peasant is a peasant, is a peasant? : Medieval Maritime Peasant Lives on www.medievalists.net sourced from the paper by Maryanne Kowaleski, Professor of History and Medieval Studies at Fordham University.

To end today's blog, I have put a bit of a tongue-in-cheek humour from The Toast where two medieval monks invent bestiaries...

MONK #1: ugh sorry to bother you again

MONK #2: no no its fine

this is what i’m here for

what is it

MONK #1: what part of a goat is a snail again

like the front end or the back end

MONK #2: what part do you feel like should be the snail part

MONK #1: the back part?

MONK #2: you shouldnt doubt yourself

you know more about goats than you give yourself credit for

Stormy medieval boats

Duccio di Buoninsegna [1308-1311] Jesus calling Simon Peter and Andrew

Currently, the painting I am working on is a bit of a disaster. It seemed to be going okay until I kept working on the robin in the foreground, only to have it end up looking comical. After a while, I figured it was the wrong bird. Frustrated, I changed the bird. The bird still looks a bit comical but it's singing or is it singing a warning? This has changed the painting from me thinking about holding on in a difficult place to actually one of pushing out to help others in disaster. This seems a bit strange but if it is what the painting wants, I'll do my best to do it. 

Boats and stormy weather brings to my mind Jesus walking on the water towards his disciples. Together with my love of medieval art, this has led me to investigate images of medieval boats today. One article I read this morning in The pelican papers, had a humorous bit of text about Peter, the Rock or "Rocky" for short.  Peter takes a few steps walking on water to meet Jesus. Frightened by the wind and sinking into the waves, Rocky calls for help. Jesus pulls him out of the drink. And then, 

"What's the matter, O faithless one? Jesus says with a grin. Scared of a little wind, a big old fisherman like you? Why did you doubt?".

Ah, the eternal question from a God who likes to act in unfathomable ways. Why did you doubt? 

Well, these images here have given me a start to how I can work a medieval type boat into my painting. I thought I'd share the images with you so you can enjoy them like I have. I found the names difficult to trace on some, so I am sorry if there is no attribution to the original artist. I also highly recommend checking out the medieval ship models made by Tucho Fernandez Calo, which can be seen on his website. 

Jesus and Peter walking on water

Botticelli Reimagined

A very quick blog to say I was in London last weekend and fortunately got to see the Botticelli Reimagined exhibition at the Victoria & Albert Museum (5 March 2016-3 July 2016).

I cannot express how chuffed I was that Botticelli's Pallas and the centaur was on display and that, yes, very excitingly, it was tempera on canvas! Ha, and this work dates from 1482-1485! It did appear well protected with varnish. More information on the painting here.

Sandro Botticelli (circa 1482-85), Pallas and the centaur [Tempera on canvas]

Also, very pleasing was to discover an amazing artist, Evelyn De Morgan. Her work was so finely done and I felt with such understanding of the female form and mind. I don't usually like nude paintings, but De Morgan's Cadmus and Harmonia was wonderful. The way the snake, Cadmus, wrapped around Harmonia was incredible. Reluctantly, I had to drag myself away from the painting in order to let others see it. I also liked the way De Morgan painted flowers and birds in the paintings on display. I am quite desperate to get her book and in fact have just ordered it online (even though I probably really shouldn't spend the money!), but it is a limited edition and I don't want to miss out. Here is the link to the The De Morgan Foundation.

Evelyn De Morgan (1877), Cadmus and Harmonia, Oil on canvas 

Ovid’s Metamorphoses (Book IV, 563-603):

With lambent tongue he kissed her patient face,

Crept in her bosom as his dwelling place

Entwined her neck, and shared the loved embrace.

Other exhibitions I perused while in London were Sculpture in the Garden (Pangolin London 13 May 2016-9 July 2016). I particularly liked the Lynn Chadwick and Ann Christopher works. 

There was also a fabulous exhibition of Quentin Blake (I love his drawings!) and Shojo Manga: Japanese Girls' Comics in the House of Illustration. Really cheap ticket to see both as well.

Okay, well I must go work on my own silverpoint drawing and get to the ECA degree show this afternoon. 

Bugs and Rabbits

K Fisher (2016) You have been and will bee [Silverpoint, 20 x 20 cm]

Listening to Sufjan Stevens at the moment. It's taken me 2 and half hours to make my own gesso (first time!) and apply it to my canvas. I mixed refined linseed oil with it, a half oil ground, in the hope that it will provide a more flexible support for my egg tempera. I keep reading that you shouldn't use canvas for egg tempera as it is too brittle and inflexible, and therefore wood is the best support. As usual, I am stubborn and don't like taking no for an answer. The other alternative suggested was to use canvas on wood, which I have done before, but then speaking to a framer friend of mine, he said, if I keep adding wood to wood, it's just going to get heavier and the point is that a picture should be light. Sigh. Okay, well I should know in the next two weeks if I did the gesso wrong and it cracks. I'm also not sure that it might have little pinholes in it from bubbles in the gesso. 

I was speaking with my niece this morning and she's been drawing pictures of the characters in the Miraculous Tales of Ladybug and Cat Noir. She told me I could find it on youtube, so I watched an episode just now. It's kinda cool. I like the fact that the boy in it is the Cat superhero wearing a skin tight cat suit, instead of the usual catwoman. Here's a link Miraculous Tales of Ladybug and Cat Noir

And the rabbits, well that's the rabbit skin glue. Poor rabbit - why isn't there a vegetarian glue solution!

Two Traditions of Icon Painting

 K Fisher (2016) Mary - Western tradition
  (original fragment of icon by Segna di Bonaventura in the beginning of 14th century and kept in Honolulu Museum of Art)

Before I start to tell you about the Icon Painting course, I wanted to share that my web page on the Society of Scottish Artists is now up and running. You can find it at My SSA Web Page. I hope to update the images during the year as I finish new work. I am quite excited to have another online space.

Part of my plan for this year is to gain more knowledge and experience in the art of egg tempera painting, including different methods to protect and or varnish my work. I was very fortunate in January to attend an icon painting course in Melbourne Australia with Philip Davydov and Olga Shalamova, who are iconographers in Saint Petersburg. Their web page can be found here Sacred Murals Studio.

The course was 5 days long and even better than I had expected. I knew nothing about iconography when I started and felt I had a good grasp of what icons were about and the traditions behind them by the end of the week. I learnt that icons are a focus for prayer and meditation and that while the figures and scenes should be recognisable and painted with love and skill, they should also be abstract enough and not too flashy so as not to detract the focus from prayer. 

The course was logically set out and made more energetic and interesting by swapping between demonstration, painting and lectures in the exhibition space, where the current exhibition included icons painted by Philip and Olga. Both artists were great tutors, being very patient and encouraging and happy to answer the questions I had about their own work and practice.

K Fisher (2016) Looking at classical proportions of face

K Fisher (2016) Drawing in Ochre and Water

K Fisher (2016) Mixing flesh tone using mortar, pestle and egg yolk

K Fisher (2016) Painting tools and pigments

K Fisher (2016) Finalising drawing before green layer

K Fisher (2016) Mary - Eastern (Byzantine) Tradition  (original fragment of icon by anonymous iconographer of the Eastern Orthdox church in last two thirds of 13th century from Chilander Monastery (Mount Athos in Greece))
 

 K Fisher (2016) Mary - Western tradition
  (original fragment of icon by Segna di Bonaventura in the beginning of 14th century and kept in Honolulu Museum of Art)

Street Art - Fitzroy, Melbourne

Just over a week ago I attended a week long icon painting workshop in Fitzroy, Melbourne at the Australian Catholic University on Brunswick Street. I will post more about the course later (which was brilliant I might add!), but for now I wanted to share some of the fantastic street art I came across during one of my lunch time walks. Enjoy!