Housekeeping

Today, a little housekeeping. For Ladyred, Welcome to the South ya'll.The upper photo, the Driftwood Beach, Jekyll Island, GA. The lower photo, boating through the mangroves, Punta Gorda, FL.
Julita, I have to confess that I have a great weakness for materials and tools. Sometimes I just have to have them even if I never use them.The prayer flags were executed on a paper with long strands and was very absorbant. It was a sketchbook that a friend gave to me and is probably a japanese watercolor paper. The ink I used was Sennelier Artist' Ink, a shellac based ink, that I bought in a set of four. The set consists of two browns,black and a blue. It is a lovely ink though a bit pricy and available in several colors. I purchased it to do pen detail work over paintings executed in tempera, poster tempera or kindergarten paint, and then sprayed with shellac before oil glazing. (See my post for December 6.) I used a croquil pen for lin work and a sumi brush to wash in the mountains and the sky.
Susan, yes the movie The Cook, The Thief, His Wife and Her Lover is difficult at times and the ending is a little contrived and not up to the rest of the movie but it is the best production direction of any movie ever. The film is absolutly georgious. It is a seventeenth century dutch painting in movie form. If you haven't seen the film got to IMBD and look at the production stills. It is like a Vanitas painting, the stacks of bread, the fruits and vegetables. But, like the Vanitas there is always that reminder of mortality, the rotting fruits and maggot infested meat, and dead flowers. The colors though, how saturated they are and the way they change as the characters move from room to room. The movie is visual metaphor upon visual metaphor.
When it was released by Miramax the rating board gave it an X rating. The board had just come into being and the lower ratings were trademarked by the board but the X rating wasn't. Films were playing in adult theaters that were giving themselves XXX ratings, go figure. Peter Greenaway decided to release the film un-rated which was financial suicide in the U.S. as it limited the theaters that would show the film and was the first film to do so. Right behind TCTTHWAHL, Pedro Almodovar released Tie Me Up, Tie Me Down through Miramax. He sued the rating board and won forcing changes in the rating method.
Yes, the movie is difficult at times. An example is the lovers are in danger of being discovered by the brutal Spica, Michael Gambon, and escape naked in the cargo of a truck loaded with rotting meat. If our dialog about the movie (see yesterday's post's comments) piques your interest, 'caveat emptor.' The movie is visually stunning though, far and away above anything else I can think of and that is why it is one of my favorites.And I have a little thing for Helen Mirren, too.