Unusual maps

One of the benefits of the 'lock down' is the opportunity to read. I have been enjoying Italo Calvino's "Collection of Sand". It is a collection of essays some of which are reflections on exhibitions that he saw in Paris. One such exhibition of maps contained works by Opicinus de Canistris (24 December 1296 - c. 1353), an Italian priest, cartographer and writer. He produced a range of works that featured maps overlaid and integrated with human figures and biographical details. 

Here are some of the images.

Calvino also mentions 'Peutinger's Table' a medieval map that is a copy of a Roman map that contains the entire road system of the Empire. The Mediterranean is a thin horizontal strip

Sometimes meanderings on the web are incredibly rewarding.

 

Veritas from transport tanker

 

Libertarianism

A pile of books discarded on a rubbish heap in an industrial area. Some burnt but one open at a chapter on Libertarianism.  .........

Port Melbourne beach

A short trip to Port Melbourne beach on a winter's day.  It was glorious. 

Camellias from the garden.

Evening walk

Studio paintings in oil

The last leaf

In autumn I always think of The Last Leaf, a short story by O. Henry, published in 1907 . It is all the more pertinent this year when we are in the grip of an epidemic.

In the O'Henry story, the illness is pneumonia.
Sue and Jo two young women artists share a studio at the top of a run-down apartment building. When winter comes, Jo becomes grievously ill. The doctor who visits them predicts that Jo won’t have much chance of survival if she doesn’t find the will to live, since his medicines have little effect on a patient who has decided that she’s going to die.

Jo is feeling very fatalistic and becomes obsessed with the leaves falling from a vine outside her window. After the last leaf falls, she tells Sue, she will die. Sue tries unsuccessfully to convince Jo that she has something to live for. In desperation she goes to visit their downstairs neighbour, Behrman—an old, unsuccessful artist who, after decades of failure, still hopes to paint his “masterpiece.” He paints a leaf on the wall which is so realistic that Jo thinks that it is real. She regains the will to live, but the old artist Behrman, well he succumbed to while he was outside painting the leaf....

It is a very sentimental but lovely story, timeless and compassionate. It was made into a movie that I remember watching.  It is here on Youtube as part of an anthology - the story starts at 44.08 minutes into the movie. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YPbgGywFiNg

Images of Autumn

New paintings

After months of work, I have completed the finishing touches for the works that I have created for the Melbourne International Flower Garden Show which takes place from 25- 29 March.

I am exhibiting these paintings with our group The Northern Artists. There is  section of the Flower Show dedicated to art based on garden themes.
Here is a selection of the works that I have prepared. They range from 1 meter by 1 meter to around 70cm x 50cm