Lost in a cloud of butterflies

Last summer, I purchased a book named "Gioconda " by British writer Lucille Turner, an excellent historical fiction of Leonardo da Vinci's life. I love the way the book opens inside the mind of the solitary boy Leonardo roaming the countryside, being fascinated by mechanics of butterflies, watching rivers to see exactly how water moves, collecting dead animals to dissect.

"A small boy knee deep in meadow flowers of humming violet, blazing white, is lost in a cloud of butterflies. He holds out his net,..., and waves it through the air, making eddies and currents but catching only sunlight. He flies this way and that, chasing wings that do not want to be caught, until finally he gives up, sits on a clump of moss and watches the stream instead...Time for another approach, he thinks. Let the butterfly come to you. He sits still and waits..."

Immediately after reading these sentences, I began to make a sketch of a small boy standing in the middle of a wild flower meadow and observing a lek of colorful butterflies dancing in the air. For some inexplicable reason I didn't feel like finishing the drawing and just left it undone until yesterday.

Language of flowers: Love-in-a-mist

Language of flowers:

Nigella (or Love-in-a-mist) - "You puzzle me."

Love-in-a-mist (Nigella damascena) is one of my favorites.

Love-in-a-mist gets its evocative name from the way a tangle of ferny, fennel like foliage form a mist around the flowers. However, obviously not everyone felt about it in the same way, as it was also known as devil-in-a-bush and Jack-in-prison (???). Because of its misty foliage like a veil of secrecy, the flower is a symbol of perplexity. In some regions in Europe, women used to give Nigella as a refusal to their undesirable suitors, since the flower is also a symbol of unrequited love.

"Weeds are flowers too, once you get to know them." - A. A. Milne

Melody for a healed soul

It seems when something ends there's always something waiting to begin.
Every parting is a chance to start again. Make failure your friend and mentor, since we all know: "The only failure is the failure to learn from failure."
My new and maybe, very long journey has just begun. I'm at same time confused, disorientated but exciting and hopeful.

"Peace, my heart, let the time for the parting be sweet.
 Let it not be a death but completeness.
 Let love melt into memory and pain into songs.
 Let the flight through the sky end in the folding of the wings over the nest.
 Let the last touch of your hands be gentle like the flower of the night.
 Stand still, O Beautiful End, for a moment, and say your last words in silence.
 I bow to you and hold up my lamp to light you on your way."
                                                           - The Gardener- Rabindranath Tagore

Playing guitar

I was suggested to learn to play guitar mentored by a friend of one friend of mine. (The acquaintanceship sounds a bit complicated.) I used to learn to play keyboard and had vocal lessons when I was a child. Back then I was not really delighted with these music lessons and very lazy to practice. That's why my music career ended soon. However until now I still can read some notes. It has been learned that it's never too late to try to do something new or redo something old. :)

I already ordered a guitar and am now waiting it delivered. It seems that Fridolin- my poor Djungarian hamster- will have to suffer a lot in the near future. Just a joke! Since hamsters are sensitive to light and noise, I will make sure to leave him in peace while practicing.

Wanna be a teen girl again!

I went to Heinerfest with a very good friend of mine two days ago.

Have you ever heard of this festival? It is an annual festival in Darmstadt, Germany, believed the second largest city festival in Germany, celebrated at the beginning of July and will take 5 days. On the last day of the festival, there will be a beautiful closing firework show. This time I enjoyed the show with my friend and we had lots of fun.

My friend, she brought hopes, inspiration, wise advice and lots of laughs. She and the festival made me feel like being a happy teenager again. Best friends forever! 

A Happy Summer Bride

Leafing through the lovely DIY wedding lookbook of Mollie Makes made me feel like sewing a wedding dress for myself. (I have a sewing machine at home.)

My best friend told me: "It's a good idea to keep you busy. Because of your lack of skill, it will take you years to finish the dress for sure. Until then you may have already found Mr. Right to wed."

What a clever friend she is!

Max and I

At the moment I dearly want to look for an animal companion, such as a big tomcat.
I'd like to give him the name Maximilian- for use on paper- or just call him Max for short at home.

Like a broken butterfly

Sunny days could be a pain, if one's heart is weighted down by sorrow. 

Rainy days calm me down, since the gray color of the sky, that heavy feeling in the air before the rain and the very strong earthy wet dirt smell after it seem to correspond to my blue thoughts.

If my soul were a butterfly, it would be now a broken one. 

Piggy loves dancing

I went a ballet school, when I was 12.

Actually the lessons were pretty difficult and lacked of fun due to strict diet plans. However, everything in memory of the old days seems to be always illuminated and very gentle.

Aries child

I'm an Aries child. Can that be the reason, why I'm crazy about sheep and always long for springtime?

Magazine Girl

I made this portrait from a picture I saw in the French magazine "marie claire idees" issued in March, 2012.
I don't know the model's name. She looks gorgeous in the fashion picture collection called "C'est vous l'artiste" inspired by some well-known artists' clothing. The picture I like most is the one in which the model has a beautiful hairstyle inspired by Frida Kahlo.
Famous names are mentioned, such as Jackson Pollock, Pablo Picasso, Camille Claudel, Salvador Dali and Yves Klein. I can't help seeing this picture collection again and again.

And this is how the hairstyle, which bewitched me, looks like.

The Carnival is over!

The Carnival with parades and costume balls in Germany takes place on Rose Monday in February every year. Since I went to Germany to study, I haven't taken part in.
February is a hard month for students here. The university semester comes to the end and all students face tests or seminar papers and very often, both of them. Celebrating the Carnival seems to be a luxury that an international student cannot afford.
However, I like this event, which German people call "the fifth season". Having four seasons to enjoy themselves is obviously not enough. German people still need another occasion to have more fun. I remember a newspaper article telling that Germany is the world's most unfunny country. The cultural sense of humor is always different, isn't it?
In my opinion, the fact that they created "the fifth season" makes them very amusing people. :))

Now the Carnival is over. 

A Little Girl

This is a small drawing in size of a postcard done last night, after I had dinner with two friends of mine.

Currently, I cannot cook and wash dishes at home, since the waste water pump is broken and the stove doesn't work. (They share the same electrical safety system. As long as the pump is still not repaired, the stove will remain cold.) Eating out is now the best and the only choice.
The last two weeks seemed like the coldest time ever. It's fortunately getting warmer now and made me long for the fist plum blossom of this year, which should appear before my birthday at the end of March.

I simply call this drawing "A Little Girl", since no better ideas for a name passed through my mind.

Moleskine Japanese Album- The story of Four Seasons- Winter Again- The End

I'm going to fly back home tomorrow. Before that, I finished the last pictures of my Moleskine Japanese Album- The Story of Four Seasons.

One year ago, I first saw a Japanese Album of Moleskine at a bookstore and wanted to make a picture story with it. It took me a little time, since I didn't want to finish the story of four seasons within a week, but waited for the change of seasons, enjoyed it and at last, tried to keep some memories back.
It was really fun, that I, for the first time, drew a sketchbook fully and pictures relate to each other. :)

Christmas is coming. A hand-made scarf can be a great present. I crocheted a very long scarf as a present to one friend of mine two years ago. What a hard work it was!

It's now time to exchange presents. Let's see what his present is.

Winter isn't boring anymore. Let's make hot chocolate and wait for the first snow of this year together!

Thank you! End. 

Part 1- Winter- Part 2- Spring- Part 3- Summer- Part 4- Autumn

Snail, Rain and Ajisai

It rained all night long yesterday. I'm very sure of that, since I stayed awake all night long to finish this drawing, done by watercolor and colored pencils.
Since I've lived in Germany, I miss heavy rainy days back then in Vietnam. There are only two seasons in my hometown, dry and monsoon seasons. From May to November it rains all day long and it rains everyday. As teenage I disliked this beastly weather. Funnily enough, common things became things I miss most of all, when they're gone.
Although it never really rains in Germany, I've always had an umbrella by my side. Just in case!
Just in case it rains cats and dogs, I won't get soaked and will be able to enjoy this beastly weather. My wild excitement about rainy days made me believe, if reincarnation were real, I could be a snail longing for rain in my last life. Maybe... :)

(Ajisai is the Japanese name of Hortensia. It sounds beautiful, as beautiful as the flower itself.)

Other works of mine related to snails:

http://silent-snail.blogspot.com/2011/10/ajisai.html
http://silent-snail.blogspot.com/2011/11/sleeping-she-snail.html
http://silent-snail.blogspot.com/2011/11/speedpost-service.html

Speedpost Service

A brand-new speed post service offer for lovers of culture of writing and vintage style or eco-warriors...

Be bored with Airmail etiquettes and troubled by greenhouse effect?

Let's GO GREEN by the use of our new Snail Mail stickers! 

(Caution: This is just a work of fiction.)

I wonder whether Mr. Postman could feel offended due to delivering this postcard. :P

Front side:

 Back side:

à la chalkboard art

Chalkboard artworks have always cheered me up.
I created this drawing on paper in this style. The black background and white strokes gave it a gentle touch of old school days and country cuisine restaurants.
Besides, this is another drawing, related to tea as proof for my addiction to this hot beverage; and at the same time, it uncovered the truth, that I'm also a foreign languages junkie. ^^

Others posts about tea:

http://silent-snail.blogspot.com/2011/09/la-dame-de.html

http://silent-snail.blogspot.com/2011/01/tea-and-melone-pan.html

http://silent-snail.blogspot.com/2011/01/would-you-like-cup-of-tea.html

La dame de thé- The tea lady

I call this drawing a touch of romance and a sigh for the lost beautiful old days. 

When I talk about tea, I mention neither herbal tea nor fruit tea. To me, the word "tea" means the hot aromatic beverage prepared from the leaves or leaf buds of the Camellia sinensis plants. Through different techniques with which it is produced and processed, tea is classified into white tea, yellow tea, green tea, oolong, black tea and post-fermented tea.

I got my inspiration from the antique botanical lithography illustration of the tea plant from the German medicinal guide "Köhler's Medizinal-Pflanzen", one of the most well-known handbooks of medical plants in the 19th century.

Come to me, my Prince!

 

I love to listen to tales of mermaids and prefer the variants in which these good-looking mythological aquatic creatures are noted as unlucky omens or coldhearted sea monsters. To me, a mermaid is supposed to look more like a strange fish than a human being. That's why I added to the sea woman in my drawing a huge dorsal fin and gills on her cheeks.
While stroking her sea turtle, she looked at you. "Come to me, my prince! I'll eat you up both skin and bone. Softly."

Sunflower wedding

On the way from Parndorf back to Vienna, I saw endless sunflower fields on the both sides of the street. It reminded me of a documentary film broadcast by NHK about wedding customs in Japan. In the film, there is a couple of young Japanese who love sunflowers deeply and decided to celebrate their special day in a field of sunflowers. What a dreamy start to married life!
I made the raw sketch in Vienna and added colors to it, after I came back to Germany.

This drawing will be a present to two friends of mine who are getting married in the next month. Although they won't celebrate in a field of sunflowers, I wish their married life will be as bright and lovely as these flowers.