Little Cunera on an Easter egg hunt...

Hello my friends,

Easter is almost over but I had no time to post this little post sooner than today.  I hope that all of you had a lovely Easter weekend. Wether you celebrate it around eggs and the easter bunny or the ressurection of Christ. 

I have kept you informed about the commission for the portrait of Cunera Olshoorn in threee earlier posts. Diane Meyboom has painted this excuisite miniature version of this young lady who lived 4 centuries ago. I received the portrait last month. Because the fair in Arnhem could not take place because of the last Covid restrictions, I invited Diane over for a lunch to celebrate handing over this little painting. I waited until Easter to show you the final result because she walks in a garden. 

With (quite) some imagination she is not holding a rose but an egg in her hand. She could be looking for hidden Easter eggs in the garden, like I did when I was young. 

And talking of eggs, she found one! 

I treated myself on a new miniature Fabergé egg made by Sun of Nalladris. You may recognise it. It is a miniature version of the Renaissance Egg. The real egg was made for Alexander III of Russia, who presented it to his wife, the Empress Maria Feodorovna in 1894.

The original surprise is lost. However Sun has added a lovely little egg with painted flowers to replace the original surprise. So now, next to the Rose trellis egg from last year I now have a second miniature egg. Perhaps next Easter I (Cunera) will collect another Easter egg from the miniature garden. Who knows!

For now I wish all of you a happy Easter.  Be well and take care. 

Huibrecht

furniture: A colourful table

Hello my friends, 

In october 2021I bought a half finished  House of Miniatures table. Its cabriole legs were already sanded in shape and needed little more done than staining or painting to finish it.

Since I am working on the Stewards office and Lady Zonneschut's dressingroom it was tempting to find a place for it there. But I want to put this table somewhere else so I am not restricted to the colourschemes of those two rooms.

The square corners of each leg were already rounded off through standing. But the tops of these legs were still square. That did not fit well with the quarter round corner pieces attached to the table top. So I sanded the top of the legs to match those.  In the picture above you see a finished leg on the left. The leg on the right shows the pencil mark to which the top must be rounded by standing some more. 

When all four legs were sanded into their new shape, I reglued them to the table. And then coated the whole with a layer of chalk paint. When that had dried I sanded it smooth. This gave me a great surface to paint. 

I first decorated the table top. This is my first try to marble using sponge. Not being able to find a natural sponge locally I used torn off bits of a synthetic sponge. I sponged diluted yellow ochre, raw umber, Alizarine Crimson, and primary red alternatifely with washes of dilluted red and brown. 

The result you can see above. My apologise for the dark foto. In reality it is less subdued than it shows in the picture. I am quite happy with the result, but next time I will strive for a more dramatic marbling. 

Then it was time for the legs and the aprons (in Dutch we call these skirts) of the table. I gave them 2 layers of Hooker's green, mixed with some Titanium white to create a pastel green. 

When that had dried I added some white patches. These patches on the aprons and legs of the table will be the focus for the painted decorations. 

Scrolls and flourishes, now had to be added in Hooker's green. Some mistake were made, but these were hidden behind a layer of Light green or white. When that had dried I tried again.

And this is the finished piece. I wanted to give it a rococo feel. No panel on the aprons or legs has the same decorations on it. I actively tried to stay away from symmetry with these decorations. The result is quite playful, I think. I hope you like it too....

I would hesitate callling it Gustavian or Venetian Rococo. I think it resembles most south German Rococo painted furniture like you can see in some Bavarian museums and palaces. 

Have a great day, 

Huibrecht