This is Colossal – Jennifer Michie

March 8, 2022 / 0 Comments

I Give My Little Stars to Children

Via This is Colossal : Maria Prymachenko (1908 – 1997) was a self-taught folk artist known for her renderings of life in the Ukrainian countryside. Her gouache and watercolor works are vibrant and imaginative, depicting symmetrical red poppies tucked in a small vase or fantastical bull-like animals sprouting two-headed snakes. Expressive and consistently advocating for peace, Prymachenko’s paintings are widely known throughout Ukraine and internationally: she received a gold medal at the Paris World Fair in 1937, when Pablo Picasso is said to have dubbed her “an artistic miracle.”

{I Give My Little Stars to Children | gouache and fluorescent paint on paper | 1983}

November 30, 2017 / 0 Comments

Goodbye, Autumn

After the dipping temperatures this week in England, I think we might have truly kissed autumn goodbye. Tomorrow, the beginning of December definitely feels like it is ushering in winter with its very presence.

I came across an article today, while blog reading that seemed to capture the fleeting nature of autumn. The initial fleeting beauty that slowly ebbs away toward the bleakness and bareness of winter. It was produced by filmmaker Jan van IJken who captured a murmuration on film between 2014 and 2015 in the Netherlands.

I’m completely fascinated by murmurations and I hope that I am lucky enough to one day see one in person. I shared another video about them way, way back in 2011. The noise in Jan van IJken’s film is almost deafening in places. It is like the almighty roar of waves crashing onto a beach. Incredible!

{Found via This is Colossal}

August 27, 2016 / 0 Comments

Off the Grid

I’ve been catching up on a few things since our return from Denmark (photos coming soon, I promise!). One thing on my “To-Do” list was to go through the things I saved in my Instapaper account. As I slowly started combing through the articles I had put in there for rainy day reading, I re-discovered this one on Colossal.

A Canadian couple have spent the past 24 years building their own floating island. Today they are currently moored off the coast of Vancouver. I was completely fascinated by this idea. I would love to follow them through the seasons and see how their life changes when the snow begins to fall.

Off the Grid on a Homemade Island from Great Big Story on Vimeo.

{The original post from This is Colossal, can be found here}

April 2, 2016 / 0 Comments

Memories of Paintings

I sat down yesterday afternoon to catch up on a bit of blog reading that I had saved and I watched this. I was mesmerised. Created by Thomas Blanchard, using a mixture of paint, milk, oil and liquid soap. I was completely entranced. I felt that I was watching a cosmic explosion, a carnival of candy colours, a film showing biological matter in all it’s minutea. It is a metamorphosis of colours and shapes. I found it to be almost meditative. Enjoy!

Memories of Paintings from Thomas Blanchard on Vimeo.

{Found via: This is Colossal}