Calligraphy & more — the studio of Beth Lee, Bozeman, MT
I’m pleased to have this piece, titled “The Mind I Love”, accepted into WILD/LIFE. Hosted by the Guild of BookWorkers, this exhibition will travel to venues across the country from Summer 2021 to Fall 2022.
I enjoyed the work we did in Series 1 of Brody Neuenschwander’s online classes (see this post). So much, in fact, that I continued experimenting with it, and this piece is one result.
Lately I’ve been doing more bookbinding experiments and general studio cleaning and organizing. It’s good to get back to daily lettering.
My current reading stack is diverse. I’ve recently begun Daemon Voice, a series of essays by Philip Pullman. The sheer craftsmanship of his writing makes it a continual pleasure to read his work.
I just finished, finally, The 7½ Lives of Evelyn Hardcastle, by Stuart Turton. I’m not sure it was worth it, but every once in awhile I admired a good metaphor.
After a hiatus of some years, I’ve rejoined an 11-months-long monthly decorative envelope exchange. I’m enjoying it. We aren’t required to include anything calligraphic in the envelope — although we do have to include something. I’m putting calligraphy in mine.
I mentioned earlier that our local calligraphy group has been lettering a quotation on one of ten topics each month. This month we will be deciding how to order and layout the book that we’ll bind from prints of these quotations.
Now that we’re down to it, there are a couple of the quotations I’ve done that are sub-par. With the deadline next week, I’ve been re-doing them. Here’s the final version of the quotation on Hope. I enjoyed painting the negative parts of the letters in a fairly spontaneous way.
Gouache with brush and Brause nibs on Arches Text Wove, at 3″ square.
I’ve shown my earlier earlier version below.
It just doesn’t hang together well. It’s a good deal larger (about 9″ x 12″, I think), but it’s not good. It needs some vertical element between the two halves of the quotation, but I moved on to something new instead.
Pencil on … Khadi, maybe? I don’t remember.
Today was not a day for inspired lettering. But I showed up anyway. That’s what it’s all about (all hokey pokey aside). Maybe the muse will be there tomorrow when I show up. And I will show up.
Details of the crime: It was done by the C-2 Speedball nib with the White Schmincke Calligraphy Gouache on the black Artagain paper. The side crime was done by a Mitchell Roundhand #4 nib with Luna silver pan watercolor, mostly to make a comparison of coverage between white gouached and metallic watercolor.
I didn’t use any guidelines, but I did frame the text area using a Fons and Porter white fabric marking pencil, which I like for dark paper and painted backgrounds. The point stays sharp and the eraser that comes with it works well without damaging the paper. Not all of the 9″ x 12″ page is shown. I will eventually bind this folio into a notebook with other lettering trials.