Friday Inspiration: Ireland, July 2018

Ireland, you were good for my soul...

London Underground Map

{verso} London Underground Map from 1927, prior to the iconic redesign that untangled all the lines

{recto} Main Line map that encompasses most of the contemporary area known as Zone 1

Note the spelling!

London Calling: June 1-19, 2017

Friday Inspiration: The Sea! The Sea! (part 2)

MC Escher, Phosphorescent Sea (1933)

Kate Castelli, The Frequency of Falling (2013)

What Escher called a "phosphorescent sea" is actually a biological phenomenon known as bioluminescence. This "biological light" in the waves is the product of marine microbes called phytoplankton. Various species of phytoplankton are known to bioluminesce, and their lights can be seen in oceans all around the world.

I saw a phosphorescent sea many years ago at Race Point, on the Cape Cod National Seashore. The waves glowed with pinpricks of light as they washed on the shore and around my ankles. It was one of the most beautiful things I had ever seen and it was the inspiration for my woodblock print The Frequency of Falling.

Wanderlust...

Currently in the studio and thinking about Florence and Paris and London and...

Somewhere along the line...

Foggy horizons seen from an evening Amtrak train...

The Grand Canal

Some of the magnificent Palazzos along the Grand Canal, drawn from a quiet dock near the
Ponte di Rialto on my last afternoon in Venice.


copyright Kate Castelli June 2013

Piazza San Marco

Venice was surreally beautiful. At times the city hardly seemed real. It is a city built on water: canals instead of streets, bridges instead of intersections. There are no cars, only the frenzy of foot traffic and small boats. The colors are intensified by the summer sun and the pace of the city is frenzied with tourists.

I didn't love Venice, it was beautiful but overwhelming. And very hard to find a quiet place to pause and draw. I found it easiest to find a place to sit by wherever the gondoliers were moored. I perched near the lagoon edge and drew San Marco in the morning (top) and in the evening (bottom).

Two sketchbook views of San Marco (06/03-06/04) copyright Kate Castelli 2013

Piazza del Duomo

The heart of Florence is Piazza del Duomo, home of Basilica di Santa Maria del Fiore (Saint Mary of the Flowers)-- otherwise known as The Duomo. Begun in 1296 and consecrated in 1436, the Duomo is elaborately faced with polychrome marble panels in various shades of green, coral, and white.

It is magnificent. I could hardly believe it was made by human hands-- both beautiful and humbling. And not to mention very complicated to draw. I was undeterred and went every evening to the Piazza to sit and draw before dinner.

Three sketchbook views of the Duomo (05/31--06/02), copyright Kate Castelli 2013.

Ciao

I'm done with grad school.
I officially have my MFA.
And now....
I am taking a much needed break to eat, drink, and draw in Italy.

Arrivederci!

Friday Inspiration: Big Ben

Last Friday I started out at London Bridge and made my way up the Thames along the Queen's walk through Bankside and the South Bank. I made a delicious detour to the Borough Market where I nibbled my way through the market and bought a picnic lunch. I escaped a sudden downpour and browsed for an hour or so at the Tate Modern before continuing up the river.

full sketchbook spread, 5x16" opened (click to enlarge)

Eventually by late afternoon I ended up at Westminster Bridge surrounded by tourists and pigeons. I decided to draw the Houses of Parliament and Big Ben. It proved to be a daunting task...but a pleasant one. It seemed endless.

a detail of the Elizabeth Tower, commonly known as Big Ben (which is actually the nick-name of the bell)

EARTH has not anything to show more fair:
    Dull would he be of soul who could pass by
    A sight so touching in its majesty:
This City now doth like a garment wear
The beauty of the morning; silent, bare,
    Ships, towers, domes, theatres, and temples lie
    Open unto the fields, and to the sky;
All bright and glittering in the smokeless air.
Never did sun more beautifully steep
    In his first splendour valley, rock, or hill;
Ne'er saw I, never felt, a calm so deep!
    The river glideth at his own sweet will:
Dear God! the very houses seem asleep;
    And all that mighty heart is lying still!

William Wordsworth, Upon Westminster Bridge, 1802

Pairs of Chairs in Hyde Park

Chairs for rent by the Serpentine in Hyde Park. They looked very forlorn on a grey and blustery autumn afternoon. But they were very willing models as I ate my picnic from Harrods' food hall.

London

View from Nelson's Column in Trafalgar Square

I just got back from a quick trip (5 days) to London. I received a travel grant to do some research at the Victoria and Albert Museum and to attend the London Art Book Fair at Whitechapel Gallery.

I also visited the Tate Modern, saw the BP Portrait Award 2012 at the National Portrait Gallery, escaped the rain and admired the Holbiens at the National Gallery, browsed the crowded antique market on Portobello Road, nibbled my way through Borough Market (a foodie heaven!), was overwhelmed by the British Museum, had a picnic in Hyde Park, and did a lot of wandering and sketching.

It was a badly needed break, and I realized how much travel really fuels my creative process.

Letterpress Adventure (Part I)

{top} One of the four Vandercook presses in the shop {bottom} type, ink, and the press rollers

I took an experimental letterpress workshop at The Center for Book Arts in New York City this past weekend. We started off with a visit to the Print and Photograph Collection at the main branch of the New York Public Library to look at their collection of DaDa and related publications with works by Kurt Schwitters, El Lissitzky, and H.N. Werkman.

{top} How to properly put away type {bottom} detail of wooden type furniture and type cases

After an introduction to the extensive printshop and a crash course on using the Vandercook proofing presses, we had a discussion and demonstration of some of the techniques used by Schwitters and Werkman to create their avant garde type compositions. Then we had the rest of the workshop to experiment.

{top} Vandercook details {bottom} galleys, metal type, and a colorful array of type cases

I felt like a proverbial kid in a candy store with the choice of hundreds of typefaces (including some beautiful 480pt wooden display type). After making my selections and cutting down a stack of paper, I happily got to work...

Playing with ampersands...

Ampersand variations, 8 x 12" each  {click to enlarge}

Friday Inspiration: Post Cards

Some favorites from my collection...(click to enlarge)

I love postcards.  There is something wonderful about them-- a small glimpse into a far off place. The act of sending the postcard itself is interesting. It is a visual correspondence unlike any other. A desire to share what you have seen.

I always seem to find postcard vendors when I go abroad-- most recently the Mercato Delle Stampe in the Piazza Borghese in Rome. Or the Marche aux Timbres et Cartes-Postales near the Champs Elysee in Paris. The vendors rarely speak English but are content to let me browse. The hunt is part of the fun.

Roman Faces

After visiting the Sistine Chapel, I spent the rest of the afternoon drawing in the Museo Chiaramonti, the Greek and Roman antiquities wing of the Vatican Museum. It was a long vaulted corridor with hundreds of portrait busts and statues of emperors, gods, goddesses, philosophers and plebeians.

I am fascinated by their eternally blank stares.

(sidenote) Everything in the Vatican Museum is obsessively numbers and cataloged. All the portraits were labeled with both a cardinal number and a Roman numeral.

sketchbook pages copyright Kate Castelli 2011

Galleria Borghese

Galleria Borghese, considered one of the finest private art collections in the world.

The Galleria Borghese is the former villa of the powerful aristocratic Borghese family. The house was built in the early part of the 17th Century and the gardens were renovated in the English style in late 18th Century. 

The Borghese Family were patrons of Bernini and avid collectors of Caravaggio. You can soak up the masters as you walk through the gilded rooms-- not only works by Caravaggio and Bernini, but also Raphael, Titian, and Rubens.

The gardens are spectacular with hedge mazes and lemon and orange trees in fruit. The Galleria Borghese is located in the Villa Borghese, an elegant emerald oasis about the size of Central Park. You could hardly tell that you were still in Rome. It was splendid.

sketchbook copyright Kate Castelli 2011

Hadrian and Sant'Angelo

Castel Sant'Angelo

Castel Sant'Angelo is an imposing fortress on the banks of the Tiber. It was originally Hadrian's mausoleum, but was converted into a Papal fortress in the 6th Century and used through the sack of Rome in 1527. There is a secret passageway that leads to the Vatican Palaces.

Ponte Sant'Angelo with the Basilica of St. Peter's in the distance.

Ponte Sant'Angelo is a footbridge across the Tiber in front of the fortress. The original arches of the bridge were built by Hadrian in 136 CE, and later expanded upon as the banks of the Tiber were widened. Bernini added splendid pairs of angels across the bridge in the 17th Century.

Bernini's angels.

Piazza Navona

Piazza Navona boasts a church by Boromini and a fountain by Bernini. (click to enlarge)

Piazza Navona was built on the remains of an ancient Roman Arena and boasts not one but three fountains.

The Chiesa di Sant'Agnese Agone was designed by Boromini and is asymmetrical. The ornate fountain in the middle of the piazza is the Fontana dei Quattro Fumeri, or the Fountain of the Four Rivers. The fountain was designed by Bernini, an archrival of Boromini. One of the figures on the fountain is shielding his eyes from the sight of the church-- Bernini is literally telling off Boromini for all eternity.

(detail) The piazza is bordered by cafes.

The asymmetrical Chiesa di Sant'Agnese Agone (click to enlarge)

 

The piazza was lively and had surprisingly few tourists. I spent the afternoon sitting on a bench being serenaded by street musicians and drawing. An old couple sat next to me for a while doing their crossword puzzles, and I got a cluck of approval as they were leaving.

sketchbook spreads copyright Kate Castelli 2011

San Pietro

St. Peter's Basilica

A view of St. Peter's Square (click to enlarge)

St. Peter's square is magnificent. I stayed near the Vatican City and my first afternoon in Rome I got a gelato and sat in the square in awe. The square encircles you in its arms.

The line to get inside often wrapped around the square in the morning. You have to pass through airport level security before you are allowed into the Papal State. The Basilica is overwhelming. Nothing prepared me for the splendor of the interior (or the vastness). As soon as I walked in my whole being felt different. It was very humbling to be inside one of the most sacred spaces of the Roman Catholic faith.

The square was full of life from dawn until dark and I returned there many times over the week to draw or to just sit with the sun on my face.

sketchbook pages copyright Kate Castelli 2011