Expressing the Inexpressible 2
In my previous post I looked at an historical genre of Persianate manuscript paintings of the Night Journey or Isra and Mi’raj of the Prophet Muhammad (Peace be Upon Him). Most of these… Continue reading
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Nautilus Spiral Print
Some years ago, an inspired private collector commissioned me to do this painting. Its image online has since become very popular, with many requests for prints – so, I have finally decided to… Continue reading
Expressing the Inexpressible 1
The painting above expresses a profoundly sacred event that took place during the life of the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) – the ultimate revelation. In the year 621 CE. Muhammad was… Continue reading
Objects of Desire
This month at Art Historical London, I shall be presenting the start of a mini-series of online lectures focusing on craft industries of the medieval Islamic world that filtered into Western Europe –… Continue reading
Drawing the V&A Ardabil Carpet
The star exhibit of the V&A Jameel Gallery of Islamic Art is a colossal Persian carpet made in the early 16th century for a reception room of the shrine of Shaykh Safi al-Din… Continue reading
Drawing the Arabesque, Tracing the Palmette: Sketching the British Museum and V&A Islamic Collections
This month I started something that has been in my mind to do for a while – organizing small group sessions in which people can understand and reflect upon objects in the Islamic… Continue reading
Siyah-Qalam – An Unusual Literary Commission
Here is a commission I undertook earlier this year for writer Shekhar Das. It is an illustration for a work on which he is currently engaged. This extraordinary vision comes from a chapter… Continue reading
Drawing Mamluk Arabesques at the V&A, London
I have spent many peaceful afternoons exploring treasures at the Jameel Gallery of Islamic Art at the V&A, partly in preparation for my Islamic Art History Courses at the City Lit, and partly… Continue reading
Exhibits at the British Museum Islamic Galleries
In October 2018 The British Museum opened a new suite of galleries for the display of the museum’s collection of Islamic Artefacts. Many of us had become familiar over the years with the… Continue reading
City Lit Courses about Arts in the Islamic World and the Indian Subcontinent
The City Literary Institute in Holborn, London, popularly known as the “City Lit“ is one of those wonderfully democratic institutions founded in the early part of the 20th century. It offers a wide… Continue reading
Dream Girls, with Indian and Persian roots.
Inspired by Rajput Master Bannu, I painted this lavish vision in the early 2000s. My style and spheres of interest have changed since that time, because being an artist is a journey. But… Continue reading
Painting Indian Style
Learning from Bannu in the 1990s provided me with a great deal of insight when looking at historical paintings in museum collections, both in terms of how they were painted, and the pigments… Continue reading
My Story: Learning Painting from a Rajput Master
Back in the 1990s, I had the privilege of being able to watch and learn from an hereditary master painter in Jaipur. The late Ved Pal Sharma, known as Bannu, was unique, in… Continue reading
Exhibiting Manuscripts for a Prince of the Black Sheep at Oxford
I have curated a display of 15th century illuminated manuscripts at the Bodleian Library, Oxford, which will be open free to the public until the 13th January 2018. It is called “Making Manuscripts… Continue reading
Euroart Studios and its founder Lorraine Clarke
Late last year I moved my art practice into Euroart Studios, run by artist Lorraine Clarke, my friend and fellow alumnus of Central Saint Martin’s Art & Science. Euroart Studios is a traditional… Continue reading
Researching precious manuscripts at the Bodleian Library, Oxford
For the past six months I have been engaged in a Fellowship at the Bodleian Library’s Centre for the Study of the Book, University of Oxford. I have been researching a stunning group… Continue reading
The Book of Gold – an e-book available for sale
Over the years I have run a lot of professional development workshops with artists, craftspeople, conservators and academics who wanted to learn the secrets of making finely ground gold pigments, such as was… Continue reading
Visions of beauty and decadence: Rare publications illustrated by Jean de Bosschere
On the left is my small collection of first edition books illustrated by Jean de Bosschere, published by John Lane and the Bodley Head between 1923 and 1925. They measure approximately 10 inches… Continue reading
Farewell to Woburn Walk: Open Studio Sale Weekend
To all friends old and new, and the wonderful people who have enjoyed this vibrant space with me over the years – It’s time to say farewell to my beautiful Bloomsbury studio in… Continue reading
Machines of the Mind: Leonardo da Vinci at the Science Museum, London
Leonardo Da Vinci: The Mechanics of Genius is a temporary touring exhibition currently showing at the Science Museum, London, open daily until 4 September 2016. It inspires multiple visits. There is so much… Continue reading
Building Harmonographs: Bridging Maths and Art at Waterloo, Canada
Bridges Lecture Series I spent the last week of February in the land of maple syrup, ice wine and snow. The Bridges Lecture Series is a collaborative project managed by Professor Benoit Charbonneau,… Continue reading
Sound and Vision: the genius of Henry Dagg
The Sharpsichord This ten-foot tall, two-and-a-half ton monster, fabricated out of solid stainless steel, is a mechanical musical instrument called the Sharpsichord. It is the creation of Henry Dagg, musician, artist, engineer, and… Continue reading
The Iron Genie meets Escher at the Dulwich Picture Gallery
I was thrilled when the Dulwich Picture Gallery requested the loan of my steel harmonograph The Iron Genie for an interactive installation in the gallery in October 2015. It was there to engage… Continue reading
Manuscript Illumination: learning from a 15th Century Shirazi master
ne of In a recent post I have guest-authored for the British Library Asian and African Studies Blog I was invited to write about some of the library’s manuscripts that I have found… Continue reading
Preparing Shell Gold
Originally posted on The Book & Paper Gathering:
A guest post by Anita Chowdry My last few workshops on shell gold have been particularly rewarding as my participants have all been up for…
British Library Seminar with Barbara Brend
Painting and Illumination in Persian and Mughal Books: An exclusive look at Manuscripts in the British Library with Dr Barbara Brend 4 June 2015, 10.00 am – 5.30 pm Cost: £135 Sold Out… Continue reading
How to paint with 24 carat shell gold
As I periodically offer practical courses on how to make 24 carat “shell gold” pigment, I feel it might be useful to cover some of the applications of this marvellous pigment. The next… Continue reading
Lumen: a winter exhibition at the Crypt Gallery
The Crypt Gallery at St. Pancras Parish Church hosts a rolling programme of exhibitions, and has become known as one of London’s coolest venues for self-funded shows mounted by artist collectives. This December… Continue reading
Ingenious Machines part 3: some Interesting Discoveries
I have recently received some fascinating communications in response to my previous “Iron Genie” and “Ingenious Drawing Machines” posts, which the authors have very kindly given me permission to share in the current… Continue reading
John Brewer’s Wet-plate Photography Workshop
I have always been fascinated by early photographs taken during the pioneering years in the nineteenth century… the images are so mysterious and beautiful – literally memories of a moment held in captured… Continue reading
Ingenious Machines Part 2: Harmonic Vibrations and Messrs. Newton & Co.
The ultimate study of the harmonograph and its history is provided in a book entitled “Harmonic Vibrations and Vibration Figures” published circa 1909, edited by Herbert C. Newton of Newton & Co., “Scientific… Continue reading
Ingenious machines for drawing curves: The Archives
A frequent comment made by viewers of the Iron Genie harmonograph in action, is that it reminds them of the Spirograph. Most of us are familiar with this childhood toy, which consists of… Continue reading
Pliny the Elder on metals, and a warning from the first century
My abiding interest in pigments and their sources has always been a catalyst for a much wider scope of interest, and in the raft of very human impulses that have shaped the history… Continue reading
A Journey with Lapis Lazuli Pigment
Just look at that – a beautiful precious Blue, its subtle variety of shades and striations, shot through with streaks of calcite and glittering iron pyrites, describing some imaginary landscape. It is the… Continue reading
From Ore to Knife at Bushfire Forge
In my previous post I described the process by which we smelted iron and steel from natural ores at Bushfire Forge. Our next challenge was to see whether we could forge useable knives… Continue reading
The ancient art of smelting iron
Last week, in the company of four other participants, I attended a very special workshop at Bushfire Forge, run by master bladesmith Owen Bush. Owen researches and practices historical techniques of bladesmithing, creating… Continue reading
YEATS’ BALCONY
Originally posted on POETOPOGRAPHY:
Last night after attending the private view of BEYOND FAIRYTALES at the Hardy Tree Gallery, I took my girlfriend Julie and my friend David to see Yeats’ flat at…
Iron Genie at the Museum of the History of Science, Oxford
On Tuesday 8th July we installed my Iron Genie harmonograph at the Museum of the History of Science, Oxford. This interactive kinetic sculpture will be in the museum’s “Top Gallery” until the 21st.… Continue reading
Precious Pigments and Gold with staff from the Bodleian Library
I had the privilege of hosting at my studio a small group of staff who take care of precious historical manuscripts at the Bodleian Library, University of Oxford. They came to examine and… Continue reading
Invitation to subscribe to my mailing list
This is an invitation to all my lovely online friends, followers, fellow-artists, brilliant people and supporters to subscribe to my new mailing list at “MailChimp”. MailChimp is a bona fide e-mail marketing company… Continue reading
Antique Harmonograph Drawings
An artist who had seen some of my previous posts recently gave me a tip-off about an antiquarian harmonograph book at a local Bloomsbury bookshop …. need I say more? Of course I… Continue reading
A review of Central Saint Martin’s Degree Show One 2014
It is the season of degree shows, and Central Saint Martin’s Show One, featuring students graduating from the Fine Art courses, is currently open to the public until the 27th May. Having graduated… Continue reading
A Theatre of Machines
Bloomsbury is blessed with a wealth of superb second-hand and antiquarian bookshops, so it takes little encouragement for me to fuel my addiction to rare and interesting books. I recently hit a windfall… Continue reading
Art & Science and the beauty of the pendulum
Imagine stepping into an immersive alien environment, your senses heightened, flipping through your mental memory-files trying to make sense of the space and time to which you have been transported…. a vast, dark… Continue reading
More than the Colour Red at Visions of Enchantment, Cambridge University
On the 17th March I gave a paper called More than the Colour Red: The unspoken symbolism of cinnabar pigment in Indian painting at a fascinating conference hosted at the University of Cambridge,… Continue reading
Strange Creatures in the Margins
As I briefly mentioned the art of marginal design as one of the arts of Islamic manuscript production in my previous post, I thought I would share a few details from a very… Continue reading
Working with a Calligrapher in Cairo
Examining and re-creating an historical manuscript page is one of the best ways to understand the processes that went into its making, and one that I have employed several times in the course… Continue reading
Preserving treasures in Cairo’s National Library and Archives
Update 23 Feb 2014: Thankfully the conservation staff at the National Library and Archives and the team at Thesaurus Islamicus Foundation have managed to save all the manuscripts that were on display, though… Continue reading
Filming in the Crypt
The heavy steel harmonograph sculpture on which I have been working for more than a year is finally finished and working, and it is time to give it the debut it deserves! It… Continue reading
St. Pancras Parish Church and its Crypt
The crypt is guarded by a row of Caryatids; beneath their solemn gaze, great red doors of steel protect the subterranean mausoleum. The crypt is part of St. Pancras Parish Church, an iconic… Continue reading