ARRANGEMENT IN BLUES -Photomicrograph of crystalline tartaric acid found in wine. -NEW!
NOTES FROM THE VASHON STUDIO/LAB:
I'm back at work in the Vashon Studio, having just completed my ten-week exhibition at the Arizona Fine Art Expo in Scottsdale, AZ. It was a great show and I enjoyed catching up with old friends and making new ones. Thanks to all for visiting us this year.
Here at home in the Northwest, spring has arrived, along with Buffleheads, Mergansers, and a pair of Loons patrolling the near shoreline in front of the studio. Bald eagles are nesting a couple hundred yards to the north and I'm keeping my eye out for a new calf born to the J-pod of resident Orcas that pass by on occasion. Plenty of flowers are blooming, but the weather, ah yes the NW weather, switches back and forth from winter to summer in the blink of an eye.
In the studio/lab, I've been working on a new way to grow an old favorite, tartaric acid crystals, which are found in wine. The results of those efforts seen here have a decidedly floral look, fitting of the season, I think.
My schedule for the upcoming weeks is already filling up with plans for creating additional new crystal images and videos, working on my book, and participating in the upcoming VIVA Spring Studio Tour. The Studio Tour takes place here on Vashon the first two weekends in May. I'll be exhibiting at the same location as I had for the Holiday Tour last December.
Cheers!
Lee
Vashon Island -April 2025
VIGNETTE -Photomicrograph of crystalline tartaric acid found in wine. -NEW!
"Creativity is allowing yourself to make mistakes. Art is knowing which ones to keep." -Scott Adams
LIKE A RAINBOW -Photomicrograph of crystalline tartaric acid, found in wine. -NEW!
ART AND SCIENCE:
The Villa of the Mysteries, Vermilion, and Cinnabar Avenue
In April of 1909, while excavating at Pompeii, a city with the unique history of being both destroyed and preserved by the eruption of Mt Vesuvius, archaeologists discovered the remnants of a grand villa buried in the ash. Within the villa, they found a room adorned with extraordinary, floor-to-ceiling frescoes. The subject matter of the frescoes is still debated as to its meaning, hence the title given to the villa: -The Villa of Mysteries.
In its day it looked out onto the Mediterranean, a building that was designed to impress. The painted scenes of this particular room were set upon a deep red background of the most expensive red pigment available then or perhaps ever. It was known as vermilion. The frescoes were no DIY project, vermilion was as costly as gold.
Vermilion is a simple compound of mercuric sulfide. At the time of Pompeii's rise and abrupt fall, vermilion was manufactured by grinding cinnabar, a mineral mined from the earth, into a powder. That's it. Relatively easy to make if you happen to have a cinnabar mine handy. The folks in Pompeii weren't so lucky (in this and so many ways) and had to march over to a mine in Spain, then bring it back home under armed guard. It was and remained a very expensive red.
By medieval times a chemical method of producing vermilion had been developed whereby one heated a mixture of mercury and sulphur until the two elements chemically combined. It was marginally cheaper, assuming you didn't succumb to the toxic fumes while doing so. Vermilion remained the top-shelf red and was used, sparingly, along with gold leaf and ultramarine for illuminating the finest of manuscripts and illustrative panels. It wasn't until the Renaissance, when cheaper alternatives and the switch from tempera to oils, did vermillion fade from artist's palettes.
Up until a couple of weeks ago, I lived on Cinnabar Ave in Phoenix while exhibiting at the Expo. And although Google Maps knew right where to find it, it never told me what cinnabar was. That was a mystery I had to unearth for myself.
