recent_crolls

Calligraphy and Illumination by Jehanne Bening

This page shows some of my recent calligraphy and illumination scrolls. Click on the small thumbnail image to view the whole work.

This illumination was made on deerskin parchment recreating a 15th century Flemish picture of Souls' Assending to Heaven. I entered this in a competition July 14, 2007. The picture is about 5 x 7 inches. I also used 23K gold leaf, shell gold, and gouache paints. You can find a paper describing my method of illumination by clicking here.

For this Lilies War (combat among friends), I was asked to do another scroll for Mistress Lynette DaveJean. She was given a Court Barony June of 2007. Because of the limited lead-time I did the illumination first, planing ahead for the arrival of the text written by the wordsmith. Even though I did not have the text until a week before I left for the event, the words fit nicely into the 12x16" scroll. You may view a close-up of upper left miniature by clicking here.

This scroll was given to the winner of a special archery champion competition held in the Barony of Lonely Tower (Omaha, NE) May of 2007. To gather inspiration, I inserted the word "arrow" into the search square of the Koninklijke Bibliotheek website and found this illumination in a 14th century manuscript (The Hague, MMW, 10B23) .You may view a close-up of the archer on my scroll by clicking here.

I painted and wrote this scroll for Mistress Lynette DaveJean when she was admitted into the Order of the Pelican , June 15, 2006. I designed her scroll with an arrow for all the service she has given to archery, and with fanciful yellow roses. She likes roses. I painted this on Pergamenata (synthetic parchment) with gouache paints. Pergamenata makes calligraphy easy to correct with just light scratching. The gold is PearlEx brilliant gold powder mixed in a gum arabic binder.

Countess Ariel received this scroll for her duchy, March 25, 2006. She wanted cats, so they are everywhere. They even support her armorial device. I laid out the scroll in the style of an historic grant (except for all the cats) to go with the text style I was given. I painted the herald in the capital letter 'T' to look like M. Mikail, who announced the award when it was given. I worked this on Pergamenata, with gouache, and PearlEx brilliant gold and ink.

After Aron Helmschmidt was made a Huscarl January 21, 2006, I was asked to paint his scroll. You can sure tell the difference in the gold I used compared to the small picture above. The gold surrounding this letter 'T' does not shine.I used Bristol board with Windsor and Newton gold ink for the gold, gouache paints and ink.

I love pictures from the Manesse Codex. because they include so many heraldic references. I adapted this page for the Capstone Mathieu Chartrain received in Lonely Tower January 10, 2004. The picture includes his colors on the horse, Baroness Onora's device in the tree, the falcon refers to the Kingdom of Calontir, the snow goose is Lonely Tower's totem animal and the peacock is Baroness Onora's favorite.

The arrow and the quill on this scroll visually jump off the Bristol board page. The shadows make the arrow and feather seem real. This style of art is called Trompe l'oile. I painted this for Rolf Hobart who also does calligraphy and illumination along with being an excellent archer. He was given this scroll when he was awarded Lonely Tower's Capstone, January 10, 2004.

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.

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Last updated September 27, 2007