2012 - Leap Year

I wonder what it is about doing something different, something extra on the 29th February. I know that this day happens every forth year. However, I simply do not understand why people wait specifically for this day to start communicating with a relative or once-best-friend or why on this day they decide to do some challenging activity. Simply, why do there need to be a specific day or date to make THE one actual step? Why wait? Can anybody untangle this mystery?

For me, this was another working day when I did not forget to wish a happy birthday to somebody I actually know was born on the 29th February. And as a celebration drink, we had a cup of tea because the promised freshly squeezed fruit juice poured all over the floor. Why? The blender was not fixed properly (my fault, I admit). Yes, this sounds like a standard day with standard events for not only the 29th February 2012.

But hey, to recapitulate, at least we have one extra day to fulfil these 'standard' activities. I hope you have enjoyed today. Kx

War Horse

The entire day today I have been talking non-stop about the National Theatre production of 'War Horse' (now at the New London Theatre at Drury Lane). It was last night that I went to see it and have not stopped thinking and talking about it since. So now even you are privileged to share my experience.

After arriving to my seat, I realised how simple the stage was; specious and nothing fancy. Of course, there was a reason for that. The horse puppets needed this space to run revealing their movement and since the story itself is so powerful, there is no need for many props.

I was absolutely mesmerised by the skill with which the horse movement was achieved. Each puppet (and there was a number of complete ones) was lead by three actors (or puppeteers?). One would handle the head/neck movement including the ears, the other two would deal with the front and back legs including breathing and the tail. All three then come together in unisono imitating the voice of a horse.


In this scene the two horses had a fight that thank to the puppeteers looked so real.

The whole production was put together in such a clever way. I have mentioned it already that the stage itself was simple leaving a lot of space to run around. However, I must note how well everybody worked together to divide it when needed. Actors holding poles in various ways to create e.i. a stable around the horse or one actor leaving the scene as if opening a gate, all of this done so that the viewer does not even notice the actors.

During the production, the actors would also use the stalls running on and off the stage into the audience. My seat was located close to the stage (aisle, second raw) so I would feel the air moving every time somebody passed by. This is how I also experienced explosions in the war scenes. There was one in particular when the smoke reached the audience making us all cough and so bringing us into the scene. This was quite a nice touch, I thought.

The horse movement was captured in a way that soon you stopped seeing the puppeteers and started seeing a real horse. All was brought to perfection with the cut between a slow and standard motion accompanied by evocative music. We are so used to seeing such scenes in movies but to experience it in real life at a stage is priceless.

In this image you can see the horse in strain ploughing a field. When in motion you simply see only the horse's struggle and the boy holding the plough and encouraging the horse.

I absolutely loved the production. The overall choreography, the smoothness, the entire picture. All accompanied by a few nice humorous touches throughout such as the re-appearing goose that was depicted in such a way that any goose would be filled with envy.


This was £50 well spent.


(All images in this post have been downloaded from the Internet.)

On a way

Trying to catch a bit of a sun one morning last week, I grabbed my camera and quickly took this shot. If you ever tried to photograph an atmosphere involving sun, you will know that you need to act fast. And so when I later analysed the photograph of the sun on the figure's legs, I also noticed the picture at the background; the hooves of a horse. Both these figures appear to be 'on a way' to somewhere...

Coincidentally, last night I watched a documentary on Lucien Freud, an acclaimed artist and grandson of Sigmund Freud. The National Portrait Gallery hosts 'Portraits', an exhibition of his paintings right now.


What I enjoyed the most about this documentary was to see Lucien Freud's artistic development and the fact that he remained true to himself. The 'crazy' '60s or '70s did not alter his vision.


Throughout his work he explored what interested or perhaps even troubled him. Especially in the series of his wives and mistresses, he captured the journey of their relationships. It is known that Lucien Freud took time to produce his paintings. Mixing colours for depicting flash tones on the spot (rather that to pre-mix them for speed purposes) served as a way to thoroughly soak the atmosphere and the essence of the sitter.

Lucien Freud was constantly 'on the way' of exploring and developing his work. He would immerse himself in his work and when I look at his paintings, I have pure admiration for his achievements.


The brushwork and the individual colours working in such unity to bring to live the sitters' feelings and desires are admirable. The picture on the right is such an example. The blocks of colour so crudely put next to each other work so well together. What a style.


On a way. But where to? What a question. To be honest, as long as we are on a way to somewhere it matters. Even if you are not sure where you are heading at times, it is important not to stay stagnant. You never know what can wait for you round the corner. Kx

Leafy-fall

Do you remember this image I shared with you last autumn? This was around the time I also tried to reach for my pen and sketchbook rather than the camera to record what I see. And indeed, I found some time to stand in front of this magnificent tree and gave it a try. I must admit, this returning experience was worse than I thought. Which is why I concentrated more on the flow of the foliage rather than precision.

Can you see the clusters of different colours running down the tree? So rich. What a visual experience, wouldn't you say?

This is exactly on what I want to concentrate here. I have mentioned it before in the 'Leafy waterfall' post - colours, tiny bits and something as powerful as a waterfall. My understanding of this now is of something small that, when put together, can become visually so powerful.





Over the years, I have collected quite an amount of art and design magazines that I have not disposed of yet. Whenever I move they come with me (to the disapproval of those who are helping out - the magazines are quite heavy). Therefore, I am pleased to say that I plan to finally use them as my material for this project.

What a fitting choice. Trees are also used for making paper and magazines are paper. The follow up question is 'What is a great technique to engage with paper?' Origami, of course. And that is what you are looking at here. My small origami leaves.

So far, this is a small experiment but I must admit the folding experience exercises my fingers well. There are two points to focus on now. First, to make a variety of colourful leaves and two, to work out how to join them keeping to the inspiration images from above.

How great. I have a new project to focus on. I hope to see you soon with the progress on my 'Updates' page. In the meantime, have a great Sunday and enjoy next week. Kx

Update: Sunday, 19 February 2012

Leafy-fall

To keep you up to date with my 'Leafy-fall' project, I have spent the whole of past week doing origami; folding, cutting and glueing to acquire a bigger amount of leaves in a variety of colours. And the more I am into this project the more small leaves I actually need.

I have not told you how I came up with the shape of my tiny leaves.

When I attempted to sketch the inspirational tree, I also tried to capture the shape of its leaves. Later, after a quick research, this leaf appeared to be spot on. And so I am folding, cutting and glueing ever since.

At the beginning, I wanted to focus only on the colours of the foliage but this limits me a little and so, nowadays, I pick a page from a magazine that is covered with a big image and then spend time doing origami.

The image on top gives you some idea of the amount and colour variety. And I need more... So see you next time with the progress on my 'Updates' page. Kx


Update: Sunday, 4 March 2012
Leafy-fall

After another two weeks into my 'Leafy-fall' project, all I can say that I need more and more and more small leaves. I was hoping to demonstrate more than an image of some sort of mapping and three boxes of light, dark and mixed leaves that are just about visible.

At the bottom-right-hand corner at the image above you can see what serves as my method for joining. Yes, it is crochet again. A crocheted chain to be precise. And this is what you can see on the left, hidden by the foliage that is.

Here I have attached colourful leaves to just one chain. If you remember the inspiration image of the colourful foliage, you might recall the richness of volume and colour.

Bearing this in mind, I certainly need more leaves. And so see you next time on my  'Updates' page with the progress. Kx

Update: Sunday, 25 March 2012

Leafy-fall

I was hoping to demonstrate more of the status of my 'Leafy-fall' project than a close-up of these three piles of leaves. Three weeks after seeing you last and all I can say is that yet again I need more and more and more small leaves. This project is more time consuming than I originally thought.

What you can see at this picture are three chains of leaves I have already attached. The problem I am having here is the way of joining.

At the moment the leaves are attached at a 90 degree angle whereas I need them to appear as if falling down and still attached to the branch. For this though I need more leaves to experiment with.

And so I will continue to grow my leaves collection before I show you more. Just bear with me. I will keep you posted as usual. Kx

Update: Sunday, 22 April 2012

Leafy-fall

One month on and this is what my 'Leafy-fall' project looks like now. I mentioned that I needed more leaves and that is what I have been doing since my last update. It seriously takes time to cut through one page and fold and glue it back into small leaves. The image above does not look much, you might even think that I am not doing much. Which is why I decided to divide this pile into smaller sections by colours; their tones respectively. 

And now, I feel that I have actually done something. At the moment I have light & dark tones, brown, green, blue, red and a little pile of mixed colours that could be on a border line with red.

Seeing this injects more energy into this project. It is slowly (very slowly) starting to take better shape, giving the 'Leafy-fall' a certain focus. 

And so, again, I will continue to grow my leaves collection before I reveal more. Therefore, bear with me for a bit longer. I will keep you posted as usual. Kx

'Have a seat!'

'Have a seat!'

Believe it or not, this gentleman invited me to sit by his side earlier today. By this stage however, my feet were frozen given by the fact that my usually trusted footwear for this kind of weather failed me dramatically. Which is why I politely declined the invitation and made my way home.

Yes, finally even London has its share of snow for this year. Coming home from a delightful performance of 'The Importance of Being Earnest' yesterday evening, I could already feel snowflakes on my cheeks.

Later on, what started as sleet turned into a mini snow storm. And it snowed enough to cover the streets of my neighbourhood in a white blanket by the midnight.






This is when I wrapped myself in a scarf, put a hat on and gloves without which I cannot exist, grabbed my camera and went out (in case the snow melted by the morning). It is not surprising that I was not the only person out. Everybody was out enjoying the snow. Quite frankly, how often do you get snow in London?

Here are three pictures from my outing.

A small park I could not enter, bicycles that I just had to photograph and the mini snowman somebody had already managed to build. What a joy!

No wonder that when I woke up today, my mind was preoccupied with the thought of the snow. To my delight, the picture after the curtains were open was still white. After all it was still quite early so not many people had gone out to make their mark on the scenery. And so I found myself in Kensington Gardens, together with people with cameras (the same as me) and jogging enthusiasts in shorts.

Such was the morning in Kensington Gardens. It is slightly different to the 'Morning sun' post from last week yet still quite charming. The morning sky has its colours and put together with such settings... no surprise that there were so many cameras around.


I would like to claim the gentleman from the intro image for my creation but I just came there at the right time to take a shot of him. Therefore, this is attributed to an anonymous individual who certainly enjoyed snow in the park.

It is past midday and we still have some snow around. Of course the streets turned into sludge (that is inevitable) but the small park I photographed at midnight still remains covered with snow. How great to have some variety.