Christmas approaching

Passion for Print & Paper continues

I have scouted few files showing the work of one 19th century Polish artist.
Only four of the files were in the condition that I would edit them for clarity, colour and I had built a vignette for a nice frame they will go into.

Ostrog Castle, Poland, presently Ukraine

I enjoyed immensely reading about the artist, his immense body of work that documented hundreds of Polish castles, palaces, ruined or inhabited for posterity. The sites were then built within the Polish-Lithuanian Union, and now are within borders of Poland, Bielorussia, Ukraine or Lithuania.

Napoleon Mateusz Tadeusz Orda (1807 – 1883) was a musician, pianist, composer and artist, best known for numerous sketches of historical sites of present-day Belarus, Lithuania, and Poland.

The works and the geographical span they docomented show the borders of Polishness, of Polish Baroque and Classicism, the Eastern borders of Europe.
We view them with great veneration and remain grateful to Orda's generous spirit.

Ogrodzieniec Castle, Poland

Mir Castle, Poland, presently Bielaruss, reconstructed

Antoniny Palace, Poland, presently Ukraine

Weather

Ottawa enjoys amazing weather. It is November 8, the trees are in full colour but the begonias are still in bloom - in short, we did not have a freezing spell. Many flowers still in bloom.
Looks like fall merged with the Indian summer.
Most enjoyable...

In the meantime, somebody sent me an areal photo over Copenhagen, Denmark.
Greys galore.

Frank Mason again....

I have made a smaller than original reproduction from my newly aquired old print by Frank Mason. (more on the arrival of the original print here)
Fitted in appropriate in colour frame and bordered with the fresheness of the Somerset Velvet background.
It depictsSt. Michel off the coast of Normandy, France with the Abbey towering over it.
The print shows boats and people standing in a fairly shallow water - must be when the water is low.
Alas, there is a bridge now, or rather a board-walk, much to the loss of the scenery...

Autumn vs. Fall

Fall and autumn are both accepted and widely used terms for the season that comes between summer and winter. Some who consider British English the only true English regard fall as an American barbarism, but this attitude is not well founded. Fall is in fact an old term for the season, originating in English in the 16th century or earlier....(grammarist.com)

I had spent the Thanksgiving afternoon at the Arboretum and on the grounds of our modest Botanical Gardens at the Experimental Farm.
We rested enjoying the vernacular, beutifully weathered gazebo.

Horse Power

Filling a gap after the theft of the original, perhaps this could do in a pinch...

A replacement piece for my father.

Majuba Dawn

I have been reading Pierre Bertons "Marching as to War".
It is an absolutely great read, that satisfies both my interest in History and in the images of War Art.

The book was released about 15 years ago and probably everyone read it then. After years of too much work and raising kids, I enjoy this book now.
It gives accounts of Canadian military and political involvement in the major world conflicts, starting with the Boer War.
I did not know nearly enough about it, so the details are captivating.
The description of events surrounding the capitulation of the poor Dutch farmers.
The "Dawn of Majuba Day" was one of those mornings he brings up.

Several years ago I had created an impressive in size and appearance reproduction of a painting by Richard Caton Woodwille, Jr, an English painter, known for his battle scenes.

The Boer War was a terrible one, and really not a "Canadian War" and the presence of our armed me (albeit volunteers) was cunningly orchestrated by the press.
The battle ended with the British defeat, but the civilian atrocities were most serious, and as I learned later, almost too hard to mention.

It was Arthur Connan Doyle who passed the message to Chamberlain.
This was a story of Lizzy, a girl of Dutch descent who was dying of starvation in a lazareth managed by the British stuff. Unable to speak English, week and confused by the ravavges of war she was mistreated by doctors and nurseds as nuisance when calling for her mother.
Lizzy died at the age of seven.
The subsequent coverage by the press brought the to focus the civilian cost of the military conflicts.
We learned more of Concentration Camps in subsequent wars.

Irresistable memories

Myott, Staffordshire, and a new old dessert plate

In my grandmother times those items were the indispensible attributes of respectable household - impeccable table linens and table service.
This would be the pride and the status symbol of women.
In Europe, in regions where the destruction of war changed the social rituals most radically those objects became often merely symbolic family reliquia and memorabilia of times gone by.
For my grandmother, a pre-war bride, hardly anything survived the Nazi expulsions of 1940.
Definitely not porcelain.

After the war she had purchased some to mend emotional wounds, the longing for a sense of normalcy. Hers definitely featured Antique Roses
I had seen those lovely service pieces and admired them with a distance.
They, however, were not used for consumption, not in my time definitely, they became props.

I lived my adult life already in Canada, in much more modest, contemporary model of tea or coffee service.
However, I have been given some old pieces of what it not a porcelain, but rather  - ironstone. A successful improvement of fine stoneware by the 19th century Staffordshire potters
This is just a fragment of the "Blue stage".

Appearing amazingly fresh atop pristine white linens (gift of an older friend... Thank you!)

Oh, just last minute find:
Mini tea service, most likely Royal Copenhagen...
 

New Acquisitions

Frank H. Masson was a prolific English ((1 October 1875 – 24 February 1965) was known for his maritime, shipping and coastal scenery.

Frank H. Mason

This is a beautiful etching, signed, vintage print, quite disadvantaged by improper framing/mating.
Not terriby lot can be done about it, because according to the practice of the past, it is already mounted on board, I can only refit with the fresh pH balanced matting and museum-quality backing board. Clear acrilic instead of dark green-tinge glass will help.

Definitely, the good way of preserving the image itself will be to reproduce it digitally.
I can imagine the Natural-toned Albrech Durer paper by Hahnemulle will be ideal and resembling the original surface.

The details of the image are fascinating,
melancholic and well drawn.
Details  ----->

Current Affairs

Still attached to the old and decaying...
It's been a few years now that I enjoy the presence of those small religious statues. The now reside beside each other, pensively sharing the motherly wisdom, reminiscing on the strange times when one had her neck broken off, another colour peeled off her face...

The delightful virgins, filled with compassion:
Kwannon and Mary.
















The lamp on the other hand, also an older aquisition has been adorned with new shade (Ikea!)
Here too, East meets West (will never understand what came out of it.)

Norka

Lady Norka died, hit by a car, last night.
Kind neighbours helped to identify, gave a clean white towel, other bystanders gave words of support.
She was the only one I knew who slept like this. Rest in peace, baby.

Interior decorating and design

I love every bit about this arragement... Impractical but beautiful.

Sir William Edmond Logan

Finally, small proofs remaining from the project of reproducing all of identified (known) watercolours by Sir Willie* have been taken care.
Collection of small watercolours meet collection of small gilded frames:

* Sir William is the "father of our geology", was an explorer geologist, and in his younger days as a Victorian traveller, a skilled watercolourist.
The subject of his art were mostly mountains - predictable destination for a geologist of his time, or Scotland - his birthplace.

This is the photograph of Sir "Willie" Notman,
obviously it served as a template for the formal portrait
as the Director of the Geological Survey of Canada.

The photographi is now in the ownership of the McCord Museum in Montreal, with other works by Notman's studio.



There is few more, slightly larger proofs, but this group is distinctly naturally sepia toned.
More about Sir W.E.Logan and about Notman: here

Children's Festival

My work looked great, the weather was extremely cold.

Celebrating birthday

It is Shakespeare's year (1616) so what the heck, I decided to splurged and gifted myself with something appropriate.
Et voila! A bread plate from the Shakespeare collection by Staffordshire.
It stands now on a plate stand, right beside the "Shakespeare Cliff" engraving...

Locomotive

I have restored some of the older photographic images into a new format, a diptich.
Lula at work as a curator. Thank you.

In the memory of Harfa

Hard to believe, but I really played such instrument.
Not the weenir Guiness one, but the real pedal harp.  Ahhhh....
This illustration comes from the old French Encyclopaedia of Trades.

Valentines everyone!