Ravens gathering!

After a year of wandering, in solitude, tired and weary, among rooks and ravens in the shadows of dark Northern forests, I have found my way home to the dimly lit hallways of FPOA...at least for a while as I will most likely loose myself in the boreal once again.

From craggy and pinecovered fells I have brought with me a small but precious - for me at least - collection of relics, which have been lost for many moons. The first two, Melancholia I and II, are in many ways thought of as a pair. They are beacons of sight and sound, now found and finished:

Melancholia I has been inspired by a hauntingly beautiful painting by Caspar David Friedrich from 1818 of a wanderer lost in a sea of fog. It depicts an Imperial Navigator from the Navis Nobilite (thank you Krautscientist for clarifying) and his servants on their way through the vast expanses of a wartorn galaxy. The Navigator himself is centuries old, tall, thin and pale. His assistants, a burdened, crippled and hunchbacked servant and a blindfolded cherub. Apparently none of them can see, blind or blindfolded as they are - lost in a sea of fog. 

Together they make up a small entourage fitting the theme of FPOA eloquently balancing as they are between the visible and invisible worlds of the darkness of the Warp and the light of the God Emperor. And as I have hinted at in earlier FPOA posts there may - literally - be more than what initially meets the eye.

Melancholia II has been inspired by the weathered, dystopian and deeply sensous paintings of artist extraordinaire John Blanche. It depicts an Ecclesiarchy Echo Priest who himself - albeit only through hissing and analogue sound - has haunted the lost Arkke, a vast Space Hulk aimlessly adrift in a silent and long-forgotten corner of the galaxy. Weathered and beaten.

A hunchbacked servant of the Ecclesiarchy preaching the echoes of a millionstrong choir of dying God Emperor devotees. Echoes which can still be heard as a musical discord, an ambient resonance of prayers past, in the vast soundclouds of the Imperium here.

As my painting skills are rusty to say the least the painting process has been trial and error - experimenting mainly with inks and glazes in order to paint more quickly than I used to in the past. So Melancholia I and II represent my point zero. From here onwards I intend to progress and get both better and faster.

But these relics of the past are not all I bring back with me to FPOA from the cold north: 

First of all there are now several more relics in my Cabinet of Wonders, which I am working on getting finished and look forward to share with you in the hallways of FPOA. All of them are showing that the divine light of the Emperor works in truly mysterious ways - and that there is a fine line between darkness and light in the wartorn galaxy of the 40K universe.

Secondly, one dreary night while stumbling my way back to FPOA through the boreal I caught glimpses of what appeared to be weathered figures twice the size of ordinary men. Soaring among the craggy pines of the fells. Their distant voices were coarse, rasping and leathery. Like archaic drones they bore through the dimly lit forests with a deep and resonant sound of dry parchment, which, like a palimpsest, had several layers of tones intertwined in each other.

What had caught my eyes - and ears - that night in the boreal were ravens gathering!

I see not!

The Ecclesiarchy Echo Priest is well underway but some days ago I coincidentally stumbled upon a perfect addition to my Melancholia Project while rumaging through my precious metals.

A blindfolded Cherub from a SoB cape, which fits perfectly into the theme of the Melancholia Project. 

In the Melancholia Project there is now three minis (excluding a servo skull). Paradoxically the only one capable (or allowed) to see "properly" is the blind Navigator who kindly has assisted in blindfolding his servants.

It reminds me somewhat of Calvino's Invisible Cities and the city of Zemrude where ones "gaze will be held on the ground, in the gutters, the manhole covers, the fish scales, wastepaper,"  and further that:

For everyone, sooner or later, the day comes when we bring our gaze down along the drainpipes and we can no longer detach it from the cobblestones. The reverse is not impossible, but it is more rare: and so we continue walking through Zemrude's streets with eyes now digging into the cellars, the foundations, the wells. (Calvino, 1972)

I imagine the Navigator so convinced about himself seeing the right things that his gaze is slowly becoming detached from the divine light of the God Emperor.

=I= paint

=I= admit it. I havent been painting much for years.

But I have more or less finished one third of my Melancholia I project. The Navigator is as good as done. Next up are the two other parts of the project; servant and base. When all three parts are done I will go over the Navigator again to touch up on seals (highlights), reds and probably some more layers of glazing on the robe/skin.

As he is the main character of the project (maybe!) I wanted him to be very white-ish and pale so that he really stands out from the servant as well as the dark base I am building.

Although almost hunchbacked I like the tall slim shape of the main character together with the hunched, almost crawling, one-legged, ball-carrying servant. I also like how both are using a staff/crutch as a reference to C.D. Friedriechs Wanderer above the Sea of Fogs.

Inspired by JRNs post on reads I have added a picture of two of my current reads (Ravenor the Omnibus was at the bed table when I took the shot): Gardens by Robert Pogue Harrison and =I= Sketchbook by Blanche...the latter serves as a perfect backdrop for photo-shoots, the first is just a beautiful take on gardens and the vocation of care.

=I= see

I am almost done with the paintjob of the Imperial Navigator himself and will continue with the small servant. I will share the first series of pictures in my next post. Before I do that I thought I would let you in on some more of the inspiration for the project.

Wanderer above the Sea of Fog (1818, Hamburg Kunsthalle) by Casper David Friedrich. 

A wonderful piece of art, which illustrates how the mysticism practised by the poets and painters of the time, the like of Friedrich, is closely linked to melancholy and the paradoxical sensation of being alone, lost, surrounded by weather in a dim lit world and at the same time seeing everything more clear.

Is the wanderer above the sea of fog in control of the landscape unfolding beneath him? Or is he rather truly lost in the fog?

Questions which are relevant for the Navigator as well, as he - gazing over the swirling and foggy warp sea - may loose himself on his stra=I=ght path using the warp as his medium (see Rogue Trader, 162).

MELANCHOLIA I

I recently saw Melancholia by the Danish film maker Lars von Trier:

http://www.melancholiathemovie.com/
 
I really liked Melancholia. Not only because of the extraordinarily beautiful images but also because of the paradoxes of melancholy hinted at by Trier. Being both a mental as well as bodily state. Both life envigorating and life destroying. Both capable of being harnessed and uncontrollable.

As I believe I am a practising melancholic at times I thought that kickstarting with Triers Melancholia would be a fitting first post on FPOA. It really intruigues me. I guess there is a fine line between romantiscism and melancholy and in a brilliantly twisted way both play an important role in the artwork of the dystopian and beautiful worlds of Warhammer - as it does for Trier in Melancholia:

Well, it’s hard to smuggle in a bit of ugliness. So I think the film is slightly on the edge of plastic. Here and there. (Lars von Trier, 2011)

I read Triers statement as a hint towards melancholy as a physical state of the body being able to be incorporated as a key element in miniatures. Balancing ugliness and the edge of plastic. I come to think of the book The Anatomy of Melancholy by Robert Burton (first published 1621).

With reference to Triers Melancholia, The Anatomy of Melancholy as well as some important artworks by Blanche and Casper David Friedrich I am working on a 40K Inquisitor Navigator (based on a converted sculpt by the talented hands of Danish sculptor Tue Kaa) and a blindfolded servant (based on a converted Mordheim Dreg).

This piece is my first FPOA Project: Melancholia I. I look forward to it!