242 / & by computer

Some of the photo alterations worked much

better once I got a computer

(Cape Cod)

& /or I needed to make them a bit more 

'professional'

(Mexico)

you may have seen them in some books I illustrated

(north of San Francisco)

these days I don't get prints so often, 

though I like making photo books,

& its great to see photos on a big screen

had never seen an iced tree before that winter

in Colorado

rocks near my friends house in New Mexico

Darjeeling chickens

a tree fern at Springbrook, in Queensland,

a remarkably wet year

219 / & more

Tried to photograph some so that I could stitch together later

the angles were too difficult

The calligraphy in these was incredibly fine

Wished I could have learnt more about their making

it was probably available, but I only know english

someone said this above was a deed to property  

!!!

I couldn't tell whether these 2 books were by the hand of one person;

if it was by two or more, they were in truly remarkable accord

those artists loved what they did.

(passion is a drastically over-used word these days..)

218 / more

Most of the time I'm painting, but on the Mac I'm back

in Istanbul: looking at the dazzling books, & craft

at the museum of Turkish & Islamic arts

click for a little more detail, though with the glass cases, lights,

etc, the photos give more of an impression only

astonishingly fine details

I love all the variations of how humans write

though Arabic is close to being my favourite

~ if it is even possible to compare ~ 

each says so much about the culture that gave birth to it

Have read about people in pre-literate cultures who could recite

whole sagas from memory ~ but how wonderful to turn a page

from long ago & understand what it says.

216 / calligraphy

These were all in a marvellous Istanbul museum where photos were allowed; 

there were few signs I could read, so I trust its not

offending anyone to show them. 

Each is the most wonderful

masterpiece

possibly most would be a group effort, with paper makers, binders,

calligraphy, painters, gilders, marbellers etc

even without understanding a word, its possible to recognise a certain hand,

or time/script

& to enjoy the pleasure they found

in their work

also how all these books were so carefully preserved

& valued to this day for their beauty

some covers were tooled leather 

I was there for days, not ideal lighting, yet they

must have been painted by candlelight, sometimes. 

(more coming)

a good site for history of Istanbul & all over Turkey

204 / slow fade..

In San Miguel de Allende, I stayed 2 summers in 

this beautiful hotel, the Posada Carmina.

A wonderful old Spanish lady ran it. I had a room with this outlook,

& also a corner room overlooking the street.

I was in my room a lot, painting, & came to love the building,

& Carmina

There was a restaurant below, & a cantina next door.
There is a place named Hotel Posada Carmina,
am doubtful it could still be her; it has been 'upgraded',
unfortunately. It was over 30 years ago..

So was the trip down the Yangtze. The print has been a pinkish brown

all that time (dirty chemicals I suppose) so even photos

reflect the unreliability of memory.

I also enjoy to make changes in memory:
more recently, for the 2nd edition of A Recipe for Dreaming,
I used this as part of one illustration.
click to enlarge

188 / photobook 2

left a grass tree spike & right stag horn ferns

top left is an Equisetum

top left I think is the new centre of a cycad

these last three

I can't name

I just like the shapes.

The book has 30 pages, but this will do..

179 / china-scans

Somewhere near Guilin, it was August, 

the haze was interesting on the karst formations there

Was in China in 1982, loved the boat ride from Chunking to

Shanghai. Am scanning some of the photos,

the prints are quite poor quality, ineptly hand spotted.

hundreds of idyllic scenes, a finite supply of film

I was living on a farm in northern NSW, at that time,

so was able to appreciate the work involved

a big storm one night made pink waterfalls

   

I was just starting to plan my book on the hexagrams

of the I Ching

Had thought to use Chinese landscapes, but the travelling 

proved too difficult, then, for many reasons.