The inspiration for this new painting ‘Waggle Dance’, came from a delicious British Library manuscript of a grumpy bear with bees….
BL Harley 3448 f. 10v Photo: British Library
The idea buzzed around in my head for a while (my husband would love that pun!) until I went to see the Court and Craft exhibition at the Courtauld and saw the beautiful geometric designs created in 14th century Iraq.
This was the result of those two very disparate experiences:
Waggle Dance.
24 carat gold leaf, green gold, shell gold and egg tempera with natural pigments.
The waggle dance is a figure of eight dance done by honey bees to share information with other members of the colony about direction and distance to patches of flowers.
Pigments used include azurite, lapis lazuli, indigo, minium (red lead), lead tin yellow, genuine vermillion, cochineal, terra verte and Persian (buckthorn) berry
I have recently been elected as a member of the Fine Art Trade Guild and hope to have this painting on display at their convention in London on the 17 / 18th May.
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