My Early Illuminations

Back then I went by the name Siobhan le Blake.

This is the project that started it all. I wanted a picture of my persona's (the person I am in the SCA) parents with my heraldic device. I had to learn to paint. Today, I see  my raw attempts at white high-lighting, my naive flat figures and the limited details.

This was about my fifth picture. I painted it in August of 1994.I adapted it from the Manesse Codex as part of a Lonely Tower group project. As with my first work, it was done with water- color paint on water- color paper. The texture of the paper really shows in these photos. Today, I would telll a student with work like this "Great progress!". What do you think?

The pictures teach you. You discover new styles, new ways of painting. After three years of painting I created this neutral-colored grisaille illumination. The picture is of St. Anthony. You can tell by the  little bell. I entered this in the 1997 Queen's Prize Competition.

This half-page falcon picture was one of the first I painted on Bristol board. I combined elements from several pages of  the Visconti Hours to make this picture. I adore its 3-D fanciful flowers and the shadows of the green frame. This was given as a prize at Lonely Tower's 1998 Twelfth Night Event.

I transformed the men in the boat in"The Storm at Sea" from the Hitda Codex into Vikings to enter a competition in June, 2000. I then gave it to the ruling Royalty to re-gift.You can view the paper that went with the competition entry by clicking here. It describes the way the picture was painted.

Calontir Kingdom Arts and Sciences Competition 2001

These four 4 x 6 inch pictures were part of a comparative study of illumination styles that I did for a Kingdom level competition.

This Romanesque illumination shows the characteristic  cloth-drapery that appears damp. This angel is adapted from one in the Shaftsbury Psalter, c. 1130-1140.

This court style of painting in books is from the Ottonian dynasty. The original was done about 1020 AD and is in the Staatsbibliothek, Germany.

This later Gothic Italian angel shows Giotto's influence in the almond eyes and facial coloring. The face is done with a green-brown wash overlaid with white gouache highlighted by pastel tints.

This  French Gothic angel is adapted from the 14th century Ruskin Book of Hours. This style often included architectural frames, gilding, or patterned backgrounds.

These fanciful grotesques tickel your fancy. I borrowed them from the Luttrel Psalter to decorate the Cross of Calontir scroll Kateryn de Develyn received for all her work with cooking July 13, 2002. I also combined her heraldic device with one of the grotesques.The cooking and small animals represent things that are her own. Oh, ya, and this was the first scroll on which I also did the calligraphy.

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Last revised October 6, 2008

Unless otherwise noted, all works are copyright 2007, 2008 by Susan E. Gordon known in the SCA as Jehanne Bening