We Love You Slim, It Was Nice Knowing You

Hello Lovelies!

Probably the reason whyshe was nicknamed "The Look", via tumblr

I was so sad and startled to hear of Lauren Bacall's passing away that it took me a few days before I could even react. I'm glad that she had a long, fulfilled life, of course. But I'm saddened all the same by the loss of this major role model of mine.

Here are a few images to remember her by:

Coffee & cigarettes for our favourite Hollywood gal

Lauren Bacall in Helena Rubinstein's bathroom - photo by Louise Dahl-Wolfe

I chose on purpose her lesser known photographs. Here she is with Bogey, of course:

What a beauty!

Enjoy,

Alix of TeaButterfly.

Bugs Alert! Awesome Insect Macro Photography

Hello Lovelies!

Tumblr blogs can be a never-ending source of inspiration, especially when their owners do remember to give credit when credit's due!

I jus found out, via the "This isn't happiness" tumblr blog, about an artist, Yudy Sauw, who takes macro photographs of insects' eyes... Stunning!

 All macro photographs by Yudy Sauw

I'm sure these will become inspiration for future drawings by yours truly. In the meantime, enjoy the composition and the amazing colors!

Fun fact:

Many insect-pollinated flowers contain ultraviolet pigments that only their pollinating insects (and perhaps birds) can see. Many flowers are more strikingly coloured in the UV than in the visible spectrum. Furthermore, markings, visible only in the UV, act as taxi markers to guide the landed insects to the pollen and nectar food rewards.

via

Alix of TeaButterfly.

Hello August and... Goodbye.

Hello Lovelies,

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Today I'd like to say "Hello August" and... Goodbye! It was nice knowing you, now let's prepare for September with a Back-to-school wishlist (to be published later this week).

both images via tumblr

“Some days in late August at home are like this, the air thin and eager like this, with something in it sad and nostalgic and familiar…”
—       William Faulkner, The Sound and the Fury

Enjoy the last days of summer while they linger!

Alix of TeaButterfly.

Another Visual Obsession: Artists At Work, Part II

Hello Lovelies,

More visual goodness - collected over this past summer - on the theme of "Artists At Work" that I love so much lately:

 

Helen Frankenthaler at work on a large canvas

Enjoy!
Alix of TeaButterfly.

Alix of T

Another Visual Obsession: Artists At Work

Hello Lovelies!

Anonymous artist's studio

"Artists At Work" is the title of a book of photographies by David Seidner that Ireally love. It's also the theme of a visual obsession I had lately: collecting pictures of artists and their studios/workshops, close-ups of canvases and brushes, etc... Maybe the fact that I have been a bit creatively stuck can explain my current fascination with the theme.


Anyway, here are a few faves on the subject:

 Recent view of Lisa Congdon's studio

 

  Playing with paint at Sandra Juto's house 

 Last page from a manuscript by William Styron, or the writer at work, via tumblr

A Scandinavian studio, via tumblr

 Playful abstract art on the walls of a Brazilian home

And don't even get me strated on the subject of home offices! Here's just one, a great one from Paris:

Enjoy!

Alix of TeaButterfly.

New Visual Obsession: Falling Raindrops

Hello Lovelies,

image source: tumblr

As you may know, I'm a highly visual person. My mind/eye connection work in a peculiar way - maybe it's the same for other visually-trained creatives, or maybe it's just me, but I tend to see things in recurring patterns, that i call my (visual) obsessions. An obsession is a visual pattern that currently interests me and that I tend to see everywhere I look at a given moment. After the while, the novelty of it wears off, and I move on to the next obsession. Some obsessions remain with me at all times, they're my core obsessions.

Anyway, I've been subscribing to a lot of tumblr blogs lately, perusing litterally thousands of images, and connecting the dots between seemingly unrelated images - my fave kind of intellectual sport. A pattern that has stood out was the one showing raindrops fallung,n be it in animated gifs or otherwise.

Here are a few favorites:

Literature-inspired graphic poster by Evan Robertson 

Above: both silk Ikat weavings by Polly Barton

 

 

Above: both ceramic bowls by Lucie Rie.

 I've also been researching a lot of David Lynch's paraphernalia, more on that in my next post. Here's just a preview, from Lynch's "Nudes & Smoke" photographuic series:

 

Other obsessions currently include: b&w home decor, with a heavy accent on the black side of things, artists at work/play in their atelier, as inspired by the photographs of David Seidner, with close-ups of tubed of pain, brushes, back of canvases etc...Also: anything Cy Twombly, artwork - usually the typographic kind - that is decoupaged then reconstructed, lots of scenes involving tea-related objects as usual, and for a quirky side of things, funny elephants' images that I collect for my nephews!