Greetings, all!
I am a retired biologist, an artist, calligrapher, and music producer/engineer. I’ve been drawing and painting since childhood. I paint album covers for Strunz & Farah, a renowned guitar duo comprised of a Costa Rican and a Persian who have been performing and recording together since 1979. Neotropical, Indigenous American and Middle Eastern elements can be found in most of these artworks. I especially enjoy drawing and painting plants, animals, and ornament. I've been crazy about Persian and Mughal miniatures since I first saw them as a child so very long ago. I am sensitive to cultural appropriation and so have tried to be inspired by rather than imitative.
Although primarily an autodidact*, I studied Persian miniature in the early 1980s (Southern California is fortunate to have the largest Persian community outside of Iran), Medieval European illumination at The Getty, botanical art through The Huntington Botanical Gardens and a local botanical artists guild, and egg tempera with Sylvana Barrett at The Getty and with Koo Schadler. I work with ink, watercolor, gouache, egg tempera, calligraphy and illumination. I am a materials and methods freak. I love studying the old ways of doing art.
I am very nearsighted, so I adore miniatures — they are right at my natural range of vision. I also love examining nature at very close range with hand lenses and microscopes. The resolution never breaks down, and the fascination increases.
I am currently working on an intricate botanical on vellum-wrapped panel. It will take me a while! I am very slow.
I am very interested in finding methods to better digitize and reproduce artworks made with gold leaf or shell gold without having to resort to digital simulations to enhance a scan or photo. Getting a decent scan seems to be a major problem for our beloved art forms.
I love nature, art, music, and science. And my husband, garden, birds, and wild pet squirrel.
My goal is to finally do one piece of art that I think is truly beautiful.
* As John Constable once said, “A self-taught painter is one taught by a very ignorant person”.
@Kathlyn Powell I'm sure it's still a gorgeous piece! I see what you mean by digital manipulation, hopefully the technology will improve soon in that area!!