Ranunkel, Ranunkel, let down your hair...

One of my favorite spring flowers is Persian buttercup.

The red Persian buttercups are something between red poppies and red roses. They have the pasionate look and the velvet touch of red roses. However, their stems and buds are slightly hairy and the beautifully sharp contrast between their blood-red petals and midnight-black pistils remind me of red poppies in summer.

The German name of Persian buttercup is Ranunkel. It sound quite similar to "Rapunzel" to me. Have you ever heard of "Rapunzel", a German fairy tale in the collection assembled by the Brothers Grimm, telling a story of a young, beautiful woman with very long, golden hair, who is imprisoned in a tower in the middle of the woods? Since my little girl is a fairy of red Persian buttercups, she doesn't have golden, but black hair, which goes better with the color red.

Ranunkel, Ranunkel, let down your hair...

This is how the drawing was made step-by-step:

And ta-da, the final outcome! 

Forest animals

One year has passed since I made my typography paper cut "Cras numquam scire". 
This is the first paper cut I made this year. It is supposed to be a birthday gift for a friend's father, who turned 75 years old this year and adores the art of cutting paper designs. I finished the paper cut one day before my trip to Strasbourg, France. 
Someone told me, the paper cut brought back his childhood memories of watching the TV series "The Animals of Farthing Wood", based on a book of the same title written by Colin Dann. What a coincidence!

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

Language of flowers: Phlox

Language of flowers: Phlox - "Our souls are united."

"A garden without a phlox is not only a mistake, but also a sin against summer." - Karl Foerster, gardener and garden writer

A phlox may not have a stunning beauty, but its gentle scent is just lovely. I love to receive flowers and actually receive them currently quite often. "What a lucky girl!" is what I talk about myself now. I have thought about creating a series of botanical drawings of the flowers I received. Each flower in the drawings will carry with it a common symbolic definition according to Western Culture.
Over the years I will have a great collection of drawings of flowers or plants people gave me, which is likewise a hand-made dictionary of the language of flowers, a nearly forgotten way of communication, and a treasure chest filled with warm memories of loving and being loved.

  “I must have flowers, always, and always.”- Claude Monet

Language of flowers: Thistle

Language of flowers: Thistle - Nobility of character

It's not usual to find thistle flowers in a florist's. They've appeared so rarely, that I almost forgot, how charming they are despite of the prickles occuring on their stems and their leaves, which can hurt me much, if I hold them a little bit tight.

Some peole may love to get a gorgeous bouquet of red roses symbolizing passion of love. A symbol of an everlasting love seems not to be what I am looking for, but these wild, violet planst covered by numerous tiny prickles, which symbolize nobility of character.

Sketches from Hallstatt in Austria

I went camping with two close friends of mine in Hallstatt in Austria.
Hallstatt is a lovely, small village located in the Salzkammergut, a region in Austria. My friends told me, that Hallstatt is so beautiful, that the replica of the village was built in Guangdong province in China last year. I don't like the idea, that Hallstatt was copied. The replica is just a waste. What makes Hallstatt a fairytale-like village is not only just its charming wooden houses, but also its wonderful location, i.e. the stunning beauty of the Alpine lake landscape surrounding the village, which is uniquess and unimitable.

I stayed in Hallstatt only two days and had just enough time to do two sketches. 

 09:40 a.m., 23.06.2013, House No. 133 Oberer Berg

 06:30 a.m., 22.06.2013, at the camping site

Hallstatt on Dwellable

Cras numquam scire

"Cras numquam scire" is Latin for "Tomorrow never knows". 

While learning for the exams at the university, I made this paper cutting at break just to give variety to this tiresome and boring time.That's why it was not really as well done as I expected it should be.

Fireflies Night

For years I've dreamed of getting lost in a meadow at night where a great number of fireflies usually gathers.

Born as a city child, I never had a chance to experience this spectacular scenery. I saw some fireflies in the garden of the house where I've lived since 4 years in Germany. However, the city light makes many things, such as the starry night sky or fireflies glow, less beautiful. What a shame! 

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. 

A cocoon of love

While listening to Norah Jones' new album "Little Broken Hearts", I wanted to create a new postcard which could remind me of the fragileness of love and its care dependency. 

I remember that someone once told me, that love is a tree. It takes nourishment neither from the earth nor from the air, but from you. 

My stage is my garden.

This spring break was not enjoyable at all. Too many things at home were broken at the same time. Too many things happened. I was tired and couldn't create any drawings for two weeks.

Two days ago, I dug up some old sketches to look for new inspirations and found a poor sketch of a ballerina. I completely forgot, when and for which purpose I made this sketch. What a waste, if I would throw it away.
I gave the fragile ballerina a pair of purple butterfly wings and turned her into a small fairy dancing elegantly on a flower in a summer garden.

Life of Bugs- A paper cutting

This paper cutting inspired by bugs is supposed to form a pair with another paper cutting of mine called Sleeps with butterflies.

Some of my favorite bugs and beetles were chosen.
From top to bottom and from left to right in the picture, they are Eupholus linnei, seven-spotted ladybugs (Coccinella septempunctata), Batocera rufomaculata, Stag beetle (Lucanus cervus), Goliath beetle (Goliathus cacicus) and Cyriopalus wallacei.

 I made this paper cutting as a birthday present for myself.

The pencil sketch:

And the end result:

Flora's new scarf

Although it's still cold, spring items are arranged in shopping malls. I bought a scarf with butterfly print yesterday. It inspired me to create this drawing.
Flora is a lovely name for girls. It always reminds me of the goddess of Spring in Botticelli's painting "Primavera". Although Venus stands at the center of  painting, Flora attracts me more. The dress she wears is just gorgeous.
My Flora is covered by different flowers, such as snowdrop, cosmos, camellia, rose, pansy, checkered lily, poppy, mistletoe, coneflowers, etc. Colorful butterflies are flying around her slim, young neck, as if they were a scarf of hers.

Waldgeist

This is my first drawing of the year 2012, made with ink and watercolor.

A Waldgeist in German is a woodland spirit, which is believed to live in the forest and protect living things with a pure soul. 

I hope, next time when I take a walk in the forest near my place, I could encounter a waldgeist. It might bring me good luck for the whole year. :)

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

Dahlias in winter

I like to have flowers in my room. They cheer up grey winter days. Dahlia is one of my favorites. The complex arrangement of its petals fascinates me.
I purchased two dahlia, one rosa and one white, two weeks ago. They are now fading little by little, but beautifully.

 

Bottle postcards (3)

Let's see, what Grandma has in her garden: Strawberries, snow peas, daisies, yellow pansies and lavender. :)
The strawberries look yummy. Such a shame, because of an allergy, I cannot enjoy their tasty flavor.

Bottle postcards (2)

If we could put one's memories into bottles and lay them on a shelf, I wonder, how many bottles we would need? 

As child I used to live with my grandparents at the seaside. To me, memories of the sea are memories of the childhood at the same time. As teenager I was asked, if I were a thing, what I would like to be. I remember to have answered, that I'd like to be a lighthouse. :)
However, today's theme for the bottles of memories is Love. Van Gogh's painting "Starry Night" and a heart carved in a tree as symbol of puppy love were my inspiration.

Actually, I didn't have either memories of  a romantic starry night or a heart carved in a tree. How about you?

Momiji (Red leaves)

Tree leaves are now changing color. Winter is near.
A paper cut greeting card with warm colors as a welcome to the new season has just been done today.