Fluffy-Cloud Wall
Tangier ViewOoooooo! Just look at that fluffy-cloud wall!
I have been sorting through thousands of holiday photos in the last week or two, and I have at last reached Tangier. As soon as I saw this photo again I thought of a lovely spring sky – much like today’s (except it’s still technically winter).
I remember walking down a street of the Tangier medina and seeing that wall ahead. It was like a bit of the sky had fallen down into the dark and dirty maze of streets, and plastered itself against the wall. In delight, I stopped to photograph it. My guide thought I was very strange: after all, it wasn’t a view – it was just a wall!
A week or so previously I had leaned out of my hostel in the Alfama district of Lisbon early one morning, and photographed the glorious summer sky. It was filled with the same storybook clouds and hundreds of wheeling, diving swallows.
How good does sunshine and a blue sky make you feel!
Click on images for larger versions.
Lisbon View
Vintage Porto
The matt white hardback has silver foil lettering and a black matt/gloss slip coverRoughly translated from the Portuguese, Embalagem – Estórias de Embalar by Manuel Paula means ‘emblems – stories of wrapping’. The book celebrates the history of packaging in Portugal. I purchased it on my recent overseas trip, unable to resist its vintage allure as I love this kind of early twentieth century ephemera.
The book is entirely written in Portuguese (which I can’t read), with a short essay at the beginning. No matter: the real heroes are the images of course – and everyone knows a picture tells a thousand words. Chocolate boxes, shoe boxes, match boxes, liquor crates, ink bottles, biscuit tins, boxes for perfume, tooth powder and soap … so many are represented, and more that I can’t translate. I could have scanned all the pages for you, but these must suffice. Quaint, fascinating and inspiring.
Drawing Admiration
The Scarlet PastoraleA colleague of mine is currently working on a project inspired by the drawings of Aubrey Beardsley. Admiring one of the images she is referencing, I instantly decided the time was ripe for a story on Beardsley.
Aubrey Beardsley was born in 1872. A sickly child, he was troubled by tuberculosis from the age of nine, and – alas for the world – was finally carried off by the disease at the too-early age of 26 in 1898.
His distinctive black and white ink drawings are immediately recognisable for the exquisite lines; the delicate traceries of flora and fauna; the uncompromising dense black that heightens the drama of each subject. Influenced by the flat style of Japanese woodcuts, Beardsley’s work encapsulates the decadent eroticism of the hedonists, as well as their grotesqueries. They are compelling – we are fascinated and can’t look away, like passersby observing a crash.
Famous for co-founding The Yellow Book, and his drawings for Oscar Wilde’s Salomé, and forever associated with Art Nouveau, Beardsley’s oeuvre continues to this day to inspire and draw admiration.
Also check out Illustration Life’s story, and Wormfood’s online gallery of more than 100 images.
Venus Between Terminal Gods
Salomé
Magical Barcelona
What springs to to mind when one utters the magical word, Barcelona, aloud? Undoubtedly one of the first is Gaudi’s riot of colour and imagination: La Sagrada Familia, Park Guell, Casa Battló (or the House of the Bones). Mouth-watering tapas, Spanish chocolates, and churros. Museums galore for art lovers – impossible to take it all in. Modern hunter-gatherers will be struck dumb with amazement, mind-bogglingly thrilled with a myriad of shops tucked around every corner.
Four and one half days was not enough to cram everything in – I wince when I think of what I missed out on.
Newly Hatched
Felt purse by Cat-RabbitWant to get your hands on some goodies from newly hatched crafters and more established designers? The next Craft Hatch Market (held quarterly) is on next Saturday at 1000 £ Bend. There are homewares, jewellery, clothing, accessories, art and more. And before you exhaust your purse, pop into the cafe for a reviving coffee and pastry or two.
Cat-Rabbit says: I create handmade plush work, felt and laser cut accessories as well as various embroidered works. Thematically, my practice centres around anthropomorphised animals, vibrant and unexpected colour combinations and pattern. Each item I create is handmade without a pattern. My main aim is to make people smile. [Source: Craft Victoria]
CRAFT HATCH MARKET
Saturday 13 August 11am-4pm
1000 £ Bend
361 Little Lonsdale Street, Melbourne