Lias jigsaw puzzles: April 2015

2015-04-27

Development process of: La Gioconda - 1500 pcs. - completed

I always knew that I had to assemble "La Gioconda" one day.

Then I decided to choose the twin of the Da Vinci - Mona Lisa

which is on display at the Louvre, Paris, of course.

It's a copy painted by one of the scholars of the genius in the same year. It belongs to the Prado, Madrid since the mid 1660ies. No idea why the background was covered with black colour, but no one realized the value of this Mona Lisa which was on display in the Prado - no one even thought it might be a perfect copy painted in Da Vincis atelier. Then, in 2012, the painting was cleaned and the craftsmaster recognized that the background looks close to the Mona Lisa in France. The Mona Lisa of the Prado is now on display and shows all the wonderful details (embroideries, the landscape, details of the face) that are lost on the Louvre-Mona Lisa due to the ages.

So, here we go with a wonderful, bright-colour-reproduction of the Prado-"La Gioconda"

1500 Pieces - started 25th April 2015

this stunning face:

the robe and hands:

The trial-and-error on the black parts of the robe was really challenging!
Only assembled during daylight-hours...

the Gioconda has been finished on the 3rd May :-)

2015-04-24

Finished 24th April 2015 + updated 25th August 2016 (new picture)

999 Pieces

Chichén Itzá

20° 41′ N, 88° 34′ W

A large pre-Columbian city built in Yucatan, Mexico.

The center of this picture is dominated by "El Castillo", also known as the Temple of Kukulcan.

The base-pyramid is 24 metres high.

A Clementoni jigsaw puzzle, Italy - Series: Ethnic Collection.

2015-04-18

Finished 17th April 2015

1500 Pieces

Trevi-Fountain, Rome

Bildagentur Huber

A Ravensburger Jigsaw Puzzle (2014)

Finished 17th April 2015

2x 33 Pieces

Curiosi Kids

Illustration by Angela Holzmann

I visited an exhibition in Hagen yesterday - with a friend

Emil Schumacher (1912-1999)

Born in Hagen, representative of abstract expressionism in post-war Germany.

To show his art in an appropriate way, a museum was built during 2006-2009. You already saw this building a few weeks ago.

At the ground floor the artist's atelier is on display:

used brushes, tons with colours, huge bags with pigments - the easel is covered with

layers and layers of colour

climbing up to the first floor

The onion (1990), oil on wood

Whenever I see this vibrant red onion, I stand there and watch it.

No idea why, but I like this thing, that looks half tomatoe, half garden-reddish.

At least, I don't have to explain.... art.

Helios (1988), oil-paint on canvas

Inscripton on the wall: "Emil Schumachers Art is neither strictly abstract nor explicit graphic. His early work is already applied with themes like arcaded sidewalks, ladders, birds, horses and wheels."

Impressions of Marocco (1983)

Art on a whitewashed peace of cardboard

Impressions of Assur, Iraq (1988)

Postwar still-lifes

Still-life with pumpkin and clivia (plant), 1946

Bottle and Pumpkin (1946)

"1945 - Meeting at the wreckage"

is a special exhibition on display right now:

it shows the horror of war as well as the hard times in german post-war years

Bombing-raid on a city (1946) - a series of four woodcarvings

Phosphorus bombing on a city (1946) - a series of four horrifying woodcarvings

Sodom (1957) - Oil on canvas

There were hard times for old men in the post-war years.

Starving, nothing to do, nowhere to go. While younger men died in war or were kept in war-captivity, the older men resigned starving. This is what Emil Schumacher wants to show.

Man with a bottle (1946), ink

Sitting old man (1946), coloured pen

Women and children collect wood in front of bombed houses.

Linocut is the perfect medium chosen by the artist to express the hopeless and

hard work of a starving family

Woodcollector (1945), linocut

Is there hope to find the way back to a normal life?

Is it allowed to amuse a few years after the war ended?

Is a fun fair the symbol for hope? I guess so.

Kirmes (1948), Linocut

******

Emil Schumacher also worked on ceramics and porcelain:

Porcelain, KPM (1992-1993)

1989: on his daily walks he found slate rooftiles to be casted away. In the same year he created a circle of fourteen birds (Uccelli). Mr. Schumacher scratched the slate and painted with acrylic colours. He left all signs of age and human usage (nailholes, breaking edge) and framed the tiles in used-wood-frames.