I already published some puppets I produced, in one of my previous posts. Puppets are mighty creatures. They are not alive, but they might be very life like. In most cases they are produced to symbolize something, to express some feelings. I love them.
Here some portraits of puppets.
I happened to be in Plzen (Pilsen, well known by Beer production !) some years ago for five days. As a turist. And I found out that Czech Republic have great tradion of puppets.
There is a museum on a main square in Plzen, Muzeum Loutek, you should wisit it, if you happen to go there. I photographed allmost all exibited puppets! And that autumn and winter I spent my evenings drawing those beautiful, strange creatures. Now I am sharing with you some of those drawings.
Here is Dr Watson from Sherlock Holmes play and some other persona from the same story. Guess who was a murder ?
During those days, while drawing this caricatures from photos, I learned how to work with pastel chalk. It turned out to be exactly right technique to reproduce softness of wood they were made of. Me, beeing more of unpatient caracter, was breathing slowly, testing each color, shading and nunace.
I was also thinkig a lot about great artist and wood carvers who produced them “just for fun”, dressed them, gave them lives while playing them in small theaters for childern and maybe some adults. Mostly those people were not getting acknowledged as artist in a academic way. But how much fun they had, and people who saw their work, who wached performances ? And now also me, having great time in studiying their work in detail..
Do you see how sad this old lady is ? Life was not easy on her. But she is still here, waiting for someone to comfort him or her.
An then the good djinni from Aladin ?
While I was spending my time with this great craftworks, I left my everyday sorrows, problems, unsecurities and longings. This is also one of the reasons why I like this drawings and wanted to share them with you.
Maja Julijana B 