Painting a Quick Portrait of Dr. Ramani

Posted on August 31, 2021 by Aya Katz

Sometimes all we need is a short span of time to create a recognizable portrait of someone we know. We all know how certain people look, even if we have never met them. Dr. Ramani is a well known public figure. Can you see her in the loose painting below?

What is the least amount of effort we can put into a portrait before it is recognizable? This speed painting video attempts to answer the question.

If you would like to see me paint the portrait in real time, the video below is an hour and a half of live painting with Julia Hanna, who was working on paintings of her own.

Many of us have a limited amount of time to devote to painting portraits. But so do many working artists. Sometimes it is worth exploring how little can be done to create a recognizable image.

RELATED

https://www.pubwages.com/23/the-first-30-minutes-of-an-acrylic-painting

https://www.pubwages.com/04/how-to-paint-fast

Posted in Arts & Crafts, Beauty | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

Kate Gladstone Talks about Errors in Medieval Manuscripts

Posted on August 28, 2021 by Aya Katz

 

Handwriting expert Kate Gladstone regaled Julia Hanna and me with many amusing stories about errors and doodles in medieval manuscripts last night.

Here are some of the links to the stories and images that Kate shared with us.

https://medievalbooks.nl/2018/10/05/doodles-in-medieval-manuscripts/

https://www.pinterest.ca/barriebrill/scribal-errors/

https://medievalfragments.wordpress.com/2014/06/20/the-beauty-of-mistakes/

https://medievalfragments.wordpress.com/2013/02/22/paws-pee-and-mice-cats-among-medieval-manuscripts/

Kate is the author of Read Cursive Fast. To order her book: 

https://nationalautismresources.com/read-cursive-fast/

Many of the errors in medieval manuscripts were caused by cats, which were kept to reduce the errors caused by mice, who liked to chew on parchment. In the image below, you see what happened if a cat used a manuscript to relieve itself.

Posted in Cats, Education: Teaching and Learning | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Filksing with Leslie Fish and Samantha Moore

Posted on August 20, 2021 by Aya Katz

Leslie Fish is a legend in the filk world. Her name is synonymous with great filk music, of which she is the writer, composer and best known performer. Samantha Moore is well known as Mistress Ambra Michelli in the SCA. She is a filker with a powerful voice who grew up on Leslie Fish songs. In a historic online meeting, these two musical forces  join together in a Bardic Circle.

Don’t miss this exciting event that took place August 20, 2o21 at 8:45 pm CDT.  And you can still watch it again and again now that the event is over, because it is recorded!

Content of the Livestream: 0:00 . Intro — Looking for Leslie 2:30 . Samantha’s 1st Song “Hold Your Hat Up to the Sun” 7:52 . Discussion about Fealty with Samantha 13:15 . “Song of the Siren” — Samantha 19:44 . Leslie’s 1st Song: “That Kind of a Day” 27:20 . “Tomlinson” — Leslie 38:18 . “The Peasant Knight” — Samantha 45:15 . “Rimini” — Leslie 51:30 . “The Thousandth Man” — Leslie 56:21 . “Song of the Shield Wall” — Samantha 1:00:15 . “A Pict’s Song” — Leslie 1:04:27 . “Who Serve the Soldiers” — Samantha 1:10:02 . “Better than Who” — Leslie 1:16:40 . “I Add My Shield to the Wall” — Samantha 1:22:10 . “The Quest” — Leslie 1:25:53 . “Some Kind of Hero” — Leslie 1:33:40 . “Milinoe’s Song” –Samantha 1:42:11 . “Surprise” — Leslie 1:51:08 . “Stand my Sight” — Samantha 1:56:35 . “Kerrowyn’s Ride” — Leslie 2:06:11 . “Hope Eyrie” — Leslie 2:12:09 . Kitten on the Moon” –Leslie

RELATED

 

Leslie’s blog:

https://lesliebard.blogspot.com/

Some of Leslie’s music to purchase:

https://www.prometheus-music.com/product/avalon-is-risen-leslie-fish/

Samantha Moore’s Website:

https://www.hartshavenmusic.com/

Posted in Composers, Lyricists, Music, Musical Styles, Vocalists | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

GrubTerra Black Soldier Fly Larvae for Backyard Chickens

Posted on August 19, 2021 by Aya Katz

I have backyard chickens and ducks. I got them in 2020 when the pandemic started.

Recently I was invited to represent GrubTerra, a purveyor of black soldier fly larvae for poulty.

GrubTerra is a startup that came out in 2019.

The Founder, Michael Servais, is a recent graduate of Suffolk University. 

If you have backyard chickens or ducks, you can get a ten percent discount on everything on the GrubTerra site if you use the discount code AyaKatz.

Above is yet another review.

Posted in Animals and Pets | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

A Closer Look at the Clearingwing Hummingbird Moth

Posted on August 16, 2021 by Aya Katz

At the end of the summer season, when all the flowers go to seed, we get to see butterflies and moths at the end of their life cycle. Sometimes at that time, we get a closer look at insects that we could only view from a distance before.

Today, I found a damaged clearwing hummingbird moth trapped in my garage, gazing yearningly through the glass in the door at the backyard.

I trapped it in a glass and transported it safely outside, away from the dogs. There I  released it. I don’t think it will last long. But this was a rare chance to see the clearwing hummingbird moth close up.

Posted in Animals and Pets | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Colleen Kitchen: How the Pandemic Changed My Art

Posted on August 14, 2021 by Aya Katz

Colleen Kitchen is a multi-instrumentalist and multi-genre artist. She is a singer-songwriter, musician and graphic artist. Julia Hanna and I interviewed her, and she shared her experiences since the pandemic.

 

Where to find Colleen’s music:

Colleen’s music always comes out first on bandcamp. Not everything gets on Spotify! https://colleenkitchen.bandcamp.com/f… You can browse some of Colleen’s free 2020 shows in the video section of her Facebook Music Page https://www.facebook.com/colleen.r.ki… Colleen has several digital products available on gumroad.com https://app.gumroad.com/colleenkitche… Get to know Colleen on Instagram: a lot of spontaneous and informal photos and videos. https://www.instagram.com/colleenkitc… Join Colleen’s elite community and get a free download https://mailchi.mp/1b2efebb9c30/11g2d… Colleen answers your music questions on Quora: over 1500 answers in the music category all for free. https://www.quora.com/profile/C-R-Kit… Colleen only has one track currently on Spotify, but follow her now and look for more soon https://open.spotify.com/artist/1SeWo…

Watch the interview:

 

An earlier interview with Colleen:

 

Posted in Composers, Lyricists, Music, Musical Styles, Musicians, Vocalists | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

How to Paint Fast

Posted on August 13, 2021 by Aya Katz

Many people think that in order to paint well, you have to build a solid foundation for your painting in the form of a perfect sketch — in pencil or ink — of the object you are going to paint. Then they will transfer their sketch to the canvas, and there they will add the paint in a process of coloring in the perfect sketch. If they make errors in the sketch, they often will spend hours and days erasing and redrawing their sketch until it is satisfactory. But if you have a sketch in pencil or ink that you like, why even bother with the paint? That sketch is a work of art in itself.

A sketch in colored pencil of my daughter and Bow

I never pre-sketch my paintings on canvas, because if I do, I cannot bear to cover them up with paint. Here is an example of a sketch in pencil of my brother that I made back in 1976.

When I paint in acrylics, I also sketch on the canvas in acrylics. When I see that I have made an error, I do not “erase”. I just paint over it and make it better. This method of painting over errors is more encouraging than erasing, because you are forever moving forward and not back in the work. You can paint wet on wet and get it all done in a few hours. As you move forward through time with the wet paint, the image before you changes and grows and blossoms, but you never have to go back to an earlier stage, and errors are corrected in an organic process of dabbing on more paint.

Posted in Arts & Crafts | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Rudyard Kipling: A General Summary

Posted on August 11, 2021 by Aya Katz

A General Summary

Rudyard Kipling

We are very slightly changed
From the semi-apes who ranged
India’s prehistoric clay;
He that drew the longest bow
Ran his brother down, you know,
As we run men down to-day.

“Dowb”, the first of all his race,
Met the Mammoth face to face
On the lake or in the cave:
Stole the steadiest canoe,
Ate the quarry others slew,
Died — and took the finest grave.

When they scratched the reindeer-bone,
Someone made the sketch his own,
Filched it from the artist –then,
Even in those eary days,
Won a simple Viceroy’s praise
Through the toil of other men.
Ere they hewed the Sphinx’s visage
Favourtism governed kissage,
Even as it does in this age.

Who shall doubt “the secret hid
Under Cheop’s pyramid”
Was that the contractor did
Cheops out of several millions?
Or that Joseph’s sudden rise
To Comptroller of Supplies
Was a fraud of monstrous size
On King Pharaoh’s swart Civilians?

Thus, the artless songs I sing
Do not deal with anything
New or never said before.
As it was in the beginning
Is to-day official sinning,
And shall be forever more.

 

RELATED

https://www.pubwages.com/30/the-meaning-of-the-comforters-by-rudyard-kipling

Posted in Poetry | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Can You Paint alla Prima with Acrylics?

Posted on August 10, 2021 by Aya Katz

Alla prima painting refers to painting fast, wet on wet, without waiting for earlier layers to dry before applying an additional coat of paint. Alla prima paintings are usually completed within a single painting session.

The impressionists liked the all prima approach, because they wanted to capture fleeting light phenomena, as well as expressions that quickly fade. Earlier painters used stiff poses in subjects, because they needed to have a model pose for them for hours and even days and weeks.

But is it still alla prima painting if you use acrylics, which are known to dry very fast?

Recently I experimented with alla prima painting. I completed a self portrait from a real life moving image of me on Zoom within about two hours.

I used a very loose painting technique.

What do you think? Watch me paint and let me know in the comments whether this is alla prima painting. Would it have been a better example of alla prima painting if the colors had mixed better? Should I have used gloss medium?

 

Posted in Arts & Crafts | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

An Interview with Professor Esmat Babaii from Iran

Posted on August 7, 2021 by Aya Katz

Last night Julia Hanna and I had the great privilege and pleasure of interviewing Esmat Babaii, an Iranian academician and author.

Some of the topics that we discussed include:

  • The effect of social media on scoiety
  • How Covid has affected life in Iran
  • How literature is changed by technological advances
  • The differences between online interactions and those face to face
  • Whether an increase in tolerating differences is real or superficial

We are lucky to be able to have free and  open contact with a person of such stature from Iran and hope that the lines of communication remain open. It would be sad if new restrictions were to close this avenue for free exchange of thought.

Posted in Books and Authors, Language | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment