Poetry in lines and colors

"Short of Aphrodite, there is nothing lovelier on this planet than a flower, nor more essential than a plant. The true matrix of human life is the greensward covering mother earth. Without green plants, we would neither breathe nor eat. On the undersurface of every leaf, a million movable lips are engaged in devouring carbon dioxide and expelling oxygen. Altogether, 25 million square miles of leaf surface are daily engaged in this miracle of photosynthesis, producing oxygen and food for man and beast." Peter Tompkins and Christopher Bird - The Secret Life of Plants

Here comes the Witch , solemn and imperturbable, she is the queen of the realm of the ferocious plants. What kind of magic is she going to put in place with the help of the little black creature at her feet?

Halloween is approaching, and although I do not usually celebrate the occasion, this week's Illustration Friday topic gives me the opportunity to bring out some Gothic mood. Actually, this ghost is quite friendly and far from being scary but its presence brings something unexpected in the static scene, where a pale Emily Dickinson kind of gentlewoman, attended by an aplomb valet, is going to take to the table a bit unattractive watermelon to be enjoyed maybe by the ghost itself. The resemblance of the maiden to the famous Edward Munch's painting should give a disquieting touch to it all. The watermelon? Well, a pumpkin would have been just too obvious.    

What one has to do to escape the rage of two fighting plants! To avoid being involved in this weird boxing match our hero has no better idea than putting on a cat costume and hide himself under the table... Will the plants find him after the knock out?

"Out, damned spot! out, I say!--One: two: why, then, 'tis time to do't.--Hell is murky!--Fie, my lord, fie! a soldier, and afeard? What need we fear who knows it, when none can call our power to account?--Yet who would have thought the old man to have had so much blood in him." Shakespeare - Macbeth 

"There's a house at the end of the street where nobody lives. An old and creepy house. It has a big garden but it's overgrown and scary and no one wants to go there..." Just beginning to sketch and experiment for my next project... illustrations for a children's story by Nicholas Goh. Such a great challenge... and a little bit of fear ! Stay tuned.

Very quickly sketched for this week's Illustration Friday... Anonymous is sitting quietly in the silence of a green room. He is grey/black like his cat while around him the lively colors of plants and flowers are threatening his motionless life. The call of nature, friendly and disquieting at the same time...  The landscape in the picture is a view shot from the cliffs of Runde island, Norway.

One must be careful in wearing wigs, especially green ones. It may happen that some yellow bird decides to build its nest right on the top of it and surprises you just when you are going out to your favorite party! Doesn't the plant look surprised as well?

Little Dan is very very fond of meat! When his parents, coming back from a long journey in South Africa, took home a precious species of Drosera he   immediately thought of putting it in jail. He let Bun the bird happily fly away to his former land (Japan) and closed the hungry plant in the brand new cage. But as Charles Darwin said, "The sundew is a wonderful plant, or rather a most sagacious animal..." So sagacious as to grow a thin leaf that could pass through the cage and reach Dan's dish. This is why now poor Dan to enjoy his favorite meat is compelled to have lunch at a restaurant every day.

Just a quick sketch for this week Illustration Friday challenge while I'm trying to gather the ideas for my next book project, the illustrations for a children's story written by Nicholas Goh. It is unlikely you will be able to grow such rainbow of colors in your own garden, but maybe you could easily manage to get a blue elephant to water your plants. Sketching is often a matter of thought association: the perplexed cactuses brought to my mind the book "the secret life of plants" a weird research by Peter Tompkin and Christopher Bird, edited in 1973, which introduced the intriguing idea of plants having their own emotional life as well as their own form of communication.

"Desenzano del Garda, in the shadows of the Italian Alpes, looking over Lake Garda, for almost 40 years, a local man quietly lived in the world of imagination until a publisher discovered his works. Paolo Avigo recited poetry in images of fairytales, riddles, paradoxes, and hearsay. Seeing his works turned the viewers into Alice in Wonderland. From childish doodle to fleeting painting to soothing abstract, Paolo's paintings have a special quality that appeals to the child in us yet incredibly sophisticated and mystical. In 125 pages, this book tries to share to the world the vision of a common man, simple, yet tender and beautiful like the first sight of sunlight on a cold winter day." D. Van (Toku Publishings - Los Angeles) Purchase here