Tumblr (3.0; @catanea)http://catanea.tumblr.com/<img src="http://25.media.tumblr.com/075a05401e445ffcb527f2cfbde7e9c6/tumblr_mjlkywULMX1qbarwmo1_500.jpg"/><br/><br/><p>A recent commission (left) to accompany an old one.
<br/>An M for a Gemini whose patron saint is Mary Magdalen, with the Magdalen’s pearls and alabaster jar to accompany a much earlier A for a Saggitarius whose patron is Saint Andrew - hence the saltire.
<br/>Similar, but different backgrounds.<br/>
I have notes on the historical source for the Centaur; but no identity for my sketch of the Twins. Does anyone recognize them from some book containing manuscript reproductions? Or from the manuscript directly?<br/>Gold leaf, gouache, pigments, &c. on vellum.</p>http://catanea.tumblr.com/post/45262642771http://catanea.tumblr.com/post/45262642771Wed, 13 Mar 2013 12:52:06 +0100<img src="http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lmq1v8u3ID1qbarwmo1_500.jpg"/><br/><br/><p>Another elegant label designed by Neil Cutler. It’s an honour to be asked to write a few words every now and then for him to apply.<br/>Now I’m looking forward to tasting the champagne.<br/>It’s “Héritiers de Vallois”.</p>http://catanea.tumblr.com/post/6483715091http://catanea.tumblr.com/post/6483715091Mon, 13 Jun 2011 11:18:00 +0200<img src="http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lk952liP2u1qbarwmo1_500.jpg"/><br/><br/><p><strong>Da feiz on tadou koz</strong><br/>I am still posting old things here. Soon I’ll put up something newer.<br/>This is old, but timeless, I think.<br/>The national hymn/anthem of Brittany, with celtic script based (imperfectly) on the Book of Kells; and decoration based on the Book of Lindisfarne. <br/>Even at the time this was done, full colour was no more expensive than two-colour printing. As the dots <em>had</em> to be red, red had to be the second colour, and I really enjoyed the limitation of two colours only.</p>http://catanea.tumblr.com/post/4952515317http://catanea.tumblr.com/post/4952515317Tue, 26 Apr 2011 11:01:31 +0200<p>Ah, yes: I see: The “question” appears on my “dashboard” in the form of a “message” - nope: it doesn’t say “question” so who knows why it is formulated as “ask” to the would-be message-sender/commenter.</p> <p>The mysteries of the universe include the vocabulary chosen by blog system inventors.</p>http://catanea.tumblr.com/post/3721694966http://catanea.tumblr.com/post/3721694966Tue, 08 Mar 2011 14:09:46 +0100<img src="http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lhjr5mmTN71qbarwmo1_500.jpg"/><br/><br/><p>Criticism from the genuinely literate welcome.</p> <p>This was my homework from a beginning course -</p> <p>wonderful instructor Ricardo Vicente Placed who studied his arabic calligraphy in Cairo, has another one coming up soon -in “Urueña, Villa del Libro” -</p> <p>Curso de caligrafía árabe andalusí con<br/>Ricardo Vicente Placed<br/>30 de abril y 1-2 de mayo de 2011<br/>Sábado 11h - 14h / 16h - 20h<br/>Domingo/Lunes 11h - 14h<br/>precio: 110€ (material incluido)<br/>lugar: Centro e-LEA; Urueña, Villa del Libro (Valladolid)<br/>información y reservas: 660 676 103 / 983 717 513<br/>alcuino@asociacionalcuino.com</p> <p>Ah, yes - and Thanks! to AJP Crown for the inspiration to let the writing run upwards!</p> <p>Horizontal images are shortchanged too often on multi-column web pages.</p>http://catanea.tumblr.com/post/3640707814http://catanea.tumblr.com/post/3640707814Fri, 04 Mar 2011 19:53:45 +0100<img src="http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lh80rfsP9o1qbarwmo1_500.jpg"/><br/><br/><p>Isn’t it funny - I thought this had gone up weeks ago - but it’s not here.</p> <p>I hope now it is: A <strong>Z</strong> leftover from a complete series of watercolour letters on cards…nobody wants a Z. It is all owing to synaesthesia that my Zs tend to be black.</p>http://catanea.tumblr.com/post/3520796435http://catanea.tumblr.com/post/3520796435Sat, 26 Feb 2011 11:50:02 +0100<img src="http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lduqkxFOeb1qbarwmo1_400.jpg"/><br/><br/><p>The Q. For the third time of asking. The next one will be fierce.</p>http://catanea.tumblr.com/post/2421577129http://catanea.tumblr.com/post/2421577129Thu, 23 Dec 2010 00:00:33 +0100<img src="http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_l8tvo0EUaU1qbarwmo1_500.jpg"/><br/><br/><p>An  O L D  shopping list, celebrating a fluorescent pink marker (pity, it’s gone). Otherwise not un-typical.</p> <p>Ran across it whle doing piles of secretarial work.</p> <p>Still looking for a hardware bit for the “closet door runner”.</p> <p>And the accent’s wrong on “Baccallà”. I think.</p>http://catanea.tumblr.com/post/1130869278http://catanea.tumblr.com/post/1130869278Thu, 16 Sep 2010 09:04:48 +0200<img src="http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_l6etznSLUK1qbarwmo1_500.jpg"/><br/><br/><p>Three views of the <em>diplôme</em> presented yesterday to Architect en Chef Alain Tillier in the Abbot’s Garden at Saint-Antoine-l’Abbaye - one showing the work-in-progress, one showing the finished piece, and one with a raking light to show the gold “lit up”.<br/>Unfortunately we were late for the event having gone to throw ourselves into an icy cascade on our half-day off from teaching here; but had the good fortune to walk through the stone archway into the garden at the precise moment when Madame the Mayor thanked bookbinder Christopher Knight for referring her to us, and then “Amanda and Keith Adams*” for the diploma about to be presented. It looked as though we were right on cue.<br/>*Unfortunately she somehow said Keith’s name wrongly, but I couldn’t make out exactly how wrongly, so I can’t type it here.<br/>The paper is just some I happened to have with me, hoping to use it - I believe I got it from Benoît Furet, but I’m not positive. Schminke gouache, metal pens, gold leaf on a synthetic “assiette”. Very simple owing to time (and budget) constraints. No flashy innovations… <br/>I wish I had a photo showing it with the mayor’s signature; but I didn’t even get a look at that myself. There is a blind-ruled line above her name where she was intended to sign.</p>http://catanea.tumblr.com/post/883335630http://catanea.tumblr.com/post/883335630Sat, 31 Jul 2010 08:57:22 +0200<img src="http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_l46cixJY291qbarwmo1_500.jpg"/><br/><br/><p>Just the script.</p> <p>by Amanda for Neil Cutler</p>http://catanea.tumblr.com/post/708923551http://catanea.tumblr.com/post/708923551Thu, 17 Jun 2010 21:52:08 +0200<img src="http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_l46c3pc1Re1qbarwmo1_500.jpg"/><br/><br/><p>Design, Neil Cutler; calligraphy, Amanda.</p> <p>Pretending to be a Scotch distiller in a previous century.</p>http://catanea.tumblr.com/post/708899370http://catanea.tumblr.com/post/708899370Thu, 17 Jun 2010 21:43:01 +0200<img src="http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_l2op44ZmKr1qbarwmo1_500.jpg"/><br/><br/><p>My inscription in the “Llibre d’Honor” - guest book - of the Escola d’Art d’Amposta “ESARDI”. It is always difficult to find the way to reflect the experience in the inscription. Who knows whether it was a good idea?</p>http://catanea.tumblr.com/post/613997984http://catanea.tumblr.com/post/613997984Wed, 19 May 2010 22:33:40 +0200<img src="http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_l207lxqmno1qbarwmo1_500.jpg"/><br/><br/><p>Puer Natus Est<br/><em>Amanda Adams 2000</em><br/><em>after Oxford, Corpus Christi College ms 282</em><br/><em>as reproduced in Tim O’Neill’s </em><br/><strong><em>THE IRISH HAND</em></strong><br/><em>original size: pencil lines indicate: 150 x 210 mm</em><br/><em>[second edition mmiii]</em></p> <p><em><strong>P</strong>uer natus est</em><br/><em>nobis et filius natus</em><br/><em>est nobis cuius imper-</em><br/><em>ium super humerum</em><br/><em>eius; et vocabitur</em><br/><em>nomen eius magni</em><br/><em>concilii angelus</em><br/><em>Multiplicabitur</em><br/><em>eius imperium et non finitur pacis</em><br/><em><strong>C</strong>oncede quaesumus</em><br/><em>omnipotens Deus:</em><br/><em>ut nos unigeniti</em><br/><em>tu nova per carnem</em><br/><em>nativitas liberet</em><br/><em>quos sub peccati</em><br/><em>iugo vestuti servitus</em><br/><em>tenet per</em><br/><em><strong>F</strong>ratres multi-</em><br/><em>multifarie multisque</em><br/><em>modis olim deus lo-</em><br/><em>quens patribus in Pro-</em><br/><em>phetis novissime autem</em><br/><em>diebus istis locutus</em><br/><em>est nobis in filio. </em></p>http://catanea.tumblr.com/post/576343825http://catanea.tumblr.com/post/576343825Thu, 06 May 2010 17:13:09 +0200<img src="http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_l1vzwxHYY41qbarwmo1_500.jpg"/><br/><br/><p>Elements from the Visconti Hours borders and decoration, made into a bookmark-shape to use as a teachng tool for this style of decoration…ferro-gallic ink, gesso mordant, gold leaf, gouache &c. on vellum.</p> <p>Amanda pinxit.</p>http://catanea.tumblr.com/post/570428756http://catanea.tumblr.com/post/570428756Tue, 04 May 2010 10:36:33 +0200<img src="http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_l16b9evpHH1qbarwmo1_500.jpg"/><br/><br/><p>Some French hedgehogs wanted a sign for their door. I have been called “Tiggywinkle” in my time, so I was ready.</p> <p>Edged brush, gouache. There was no time. It’s the first and only draft.</p>http://catanea.tumblr.com/post/535591219http://catanea.tumblr.com/post/535591219Tue, 20 Apr 2010 13:44:00 +0200<img src="http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_l14f6lGNe71qbarwmo1_500.jpg"/><br/><br/><p>I cannot say “gilding the K” as two metals are involved, so I shall say: Illuminating the K.</p> <p>(February 2010. “Lettrine <em><strong>K</strong></em>” and the occupation of the month for July. Gold and silver leaf, ferro-gallic ink, and gouache on vellum. Amanda Adams)</p>http://catanea.tumblr.com/post/533029498http://catanea.tumblr.com/post/533029498Mon, 19 Apr 2010 13:13:33 +0200<img src="http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_l14exyi9it1qbarwmo1_500.jpg"/><br/><br/><p>Another of the new letters I did to bring the alphabet up to its full complement before the Olot exhibition. This one <em>is</em> a “repeat” - although no two are ever alike. Instead of using a zodiac sign, I like to do the “occupation of the month” - in the case of July, it is cutting the hay. As it is Keith’s birth-month, it is always (so far) a K. And I like the opportunity to use silver leaf (yes - it will blacken with time, while the gold remains gold) on the scythe. I always imagine the letter is “for” Keith, but somehow, the each of the previous three have been sold. Never to people with Ks as initials. Why don’t people commission their own letter, occupation, sign? </p>http://catanea.tumblr.com/post/533022469http://catanea.tumblr.com/post/533022469Mon, 19 Apr 2010 13:08:00 +0200<img src="http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_l12dm62fet1qbarwmo1_500.jpg"/><br/><br/><p>As I am not at home on the “big” computer, but it is a long time since I’ve posted anything…here in this computer, I’ve found this old Versal exemplar, but it’s bright and cheerful so I am putting it up to raise my spirits in the face of Eyjafjallajökull’s ash possibly making it impossible for me to get home from England…</p> <p>Maybe these Versals are a little too Lombardic (I’ve seen worse, in manuscripts)…</p>http://catanea.tumblr.com/post/530229198http://catanea.tumblr.com/post/530229198Sun, 18 Apr 2010 10:44:30 +0200<img src="http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_l0od113EL11qbarwmo1_500.jpg"/><br/><br/><p>Gilding the A. February 2010.</p>http://catanea.tumblr.com/post/511211125http://catanea.tumblr.com/post/511211125Sat, 10 Apr 2010 21:05:00 +0200<img src="http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_l0lzs1Kf9g1qbarwmo1_500.jpg"/><br/><br/><p>I had to replace eight letters which had been sold over the last…since our last exhibition where I showed a complete alphabet of illuminated letters, in order to have a complete alphabet again for the Olot exhibitions in February. “A” was one of them. This time, I was pleased to adapt an A from one of the manuscripts of the Life of Saint Amand, whom I regard as one of my patrons, of course. So here it is.</p> <p>Gouache & gold leaf on vellum. [technically, this letter is available for purchase]</p>http://catanea.tumblr.com/post/508110339http://catanea.tumblr.com/post/508110339Fri, 09 Apr 2010 14:24:00 +0200