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
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
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
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
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
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
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…
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
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
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
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
Barbara Brend’s seminar on painting and illumination in Persian and Indian books on 1 November 2011 was followed by workshops about pigments and techniques at my studio. The picture above shows some of… Continue reading
I spent the weekend in my Woburn Walk studio making another batch of 24 carat gold pigment. It was used historically by painter and illuminators both in the Western world and in the… Continue reading
