Category Archive: Gold

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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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…

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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

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