Colour chart used by Austrian botanical illustrator Ferdinand Bauer (1760-1826) for his field observations. His technique was to sketch a ‘painting-by-numbers’ in situ, which he could later add colour to after returning from whichever botanical expedition he was on. The example of his painting shown here is a depiction of Grevillea banksii, named for the great Sir Joseph. (via oak apples.)
Mike Pelletier: Lucy Skull
“In 2011 I was invited to create a piece for an exhibition called “Ctrl-Z” curated by 3d artist
Eric Van Straaten. This was a group exhibition of artworks created by various 3d printing processes.
The model of the skull was generated from a friend’s dental tomography scan. The form of the object was created by creating an array of copies of the skull, where each successive copy of the skull is scaled, rotated, and moved. The skull starts at life size at the front and ends up rotated 180 degrees and two times larger than life at the back.”
At a glance they seem like familiar 19th-century botanical lithographs, the type you see on endless hotel room walls. But look closer and the plum appears to be running away, the raspberries look embarrassed and the grapefruit … well, it’s enough to make the viewer blush.
The 14 original watercolour fruit studies are in fact by the surrealist artist Salvador Dali and are remarkable because they have remained more or less hidden since 1969, the year of their creation.
(Previously hidden Salvador Dali paintings go under the hammer | Art and design | The Guardian)
Fabergé Fractals by Tom Beddard
(Source: ufukorada)
Vincent van Gogh (1853–1890)
Autograph letter, dated 17 October 1888, to Paul GauguinEagerly anticipating Gauguin’s impending visit, van Gogh promised that en route from Pont-Aven to Arles his friend would see “miles and miles of countryside of different kinds with autumn splendors.” Van Gogh reported that a recent bout of eyestrain forced him to remain indoors and paint an interior “with a simplicity à la Seurat.” This painting was The Bedroom—sketched and vividly described here—in which he “had wished to express utter repose with all these very different tones.” Van Gogh expressed his desire to talk with Gauguin about this and other paintings, admitting that “I often don’t know what I’m doing, working almost like a sleepwalker.” Two months after Gauguin’s arrival, their fierce quarrels about art ended the painters’ intense friendship.
The Morgan Library
Minimal Posters - Five Great Mathematicians And Their Contributions.
“Though I am often in the depths of misery, there is still calmness, pure harmony and music inside me. I see paintings or drawings in the poorest cottages, in the dirtiest corners. And my mind is driven towards these things with an irresistible momentum.”
(Source: chasseurseul)
Eye of Horus (wedjat) finger ring, Egyptian, New Kingdom, 1539–1075 B.C.
Leonardo da Vinci | The Mechanics of Man
Luke Jerram’s Tõhoku Japanese Earthquake Sculpture
This sculpture was made to contemplate the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami in Japan.
To create the sculpture a seismogram of the earthquake, was rotated using computer aided design and then printed in 3 dimensions using rapid prototyping technology.
The artwork measures 30cm x 20cm and represents 9 minutes of the earthquake. The sculpture will be presented at the Jerwood Space in London for a show called Terra. Exploring how data is read and can be represented and interpreted, the artwork is one of a series of data visualization sculptures Jerram has recently created.
(Source: weissesrauschen)
Drawing on a stock of more than 6,000 colors of thread, a nun repairs a tapestry designed by Raphael, in which Peter receives the keys to the church from Christ. —From the National Geographic book Inside the Vatican, 1991
