#ragpaper

[mrglitterati]

Paper may seem like a simple tool, but its complicated history has had a strong effect on artists and writers. Here’s why artists should care about paper.

[jiubilant]

In a dark house, in the middle of the night, a child knocks on a door. A devil opens it.

He is thin, the devil. He’s taller than her by far. His face is long and lined as a labyrinth, or as the face of a grotesque snarling on a spout. And his eyes, under diabolic brows, are red—the child’s seen him, with a single sulfurous look, silence a whole warehouse.

He told you to wake him, the child reminds herself. He told you to, no matter the hour, that all you have to say is—

“Tea,” she hears herself say, which is not what he’d told her to say at all.

The devil blinks down at her. He’s in his nightshirt. She’d giggle at the state of his hair, she thinks, if the part of her that finds things funny wasn’t squeezed into a fist. “What?”

“I want”—the child can hardly get the words out, her throat is so tight—“tea.” She should go downstairs, she thinks, and stop being stupid. She doesn’t. Her legs won’t move. She’s stuck in the doorway, shaking, her voice stupid and small. “And an oatcake.”

A brief silence.

“Tea and an oatcake,” says the devil. “Yes.” He clears his throat. “High time, I believe, for tea and an oatcake. Let me just—”

He ducks into the darkness of his room. There’s creaking. Clunking. A muffled curse, amused. Then he reappears, as devils do, wrapped in a ratty robe with jonquils on.

“Why don’t you,” he says, tying back his mess of hair, “go and make me a snowball?”

This makes as much sense to the child as anything. She drifts to the stairs and down. The old boards are cold underfoot, and they creak. She feels as though she is walking beside herself—a little to the left, a little behind—like a spirit, like someone still dreaming.

She is still dreaming, she thinks. Devils don’t exist. She doesn’t have a devil.

“Mind your step, hla,” says the devil.

She minds it, concentrating hard, until she’s downstairs again. The hearthroom of the house is dark and strange. The rafters are slung low and strung with onions and dried mint—buruda, she thinks in a language that is dark and strange to her, too. She swallows. Her pallet lays in a lump by the fire, spilling blankets that she stoops, without thinking, to tidy—

“Never mind those,” says the devil. “I’ll get them.”

He opens the door. The child, wobbling a little, follows herself outside.

Then the sudden chill punches the breath out of her. She stumbles, skids, sits down hard on the stoop. It’s a winter night, she recollects, shocked, shivering—the sort of night she’d spend curled under a bridge, a year back, or two. Her breath fogs in the air. The tenements huddling against the house slump soft in the dark snow. She scoops up a fistful of it, burning cold, because the devil told her to—

—and realizes, dazed, that she’s back in herself again.

“Um,” she says. She blinks. She scrunches her nose. The snowball, baffling and real, winks up at her.

She packs it tighter. Something loosens in her chest.

When she slips inside, cradling it in prickly hands, the warm, familiar smells of the house hug her close: buruda and old blankets, pipe-smoke, crumply ragpaper. The kettle’s purring on the hook. The devil, sitting serenely by the hearth, is mashing oats and butter in a bowl.

“Um,” says the child again, flicking back her ears. She holds up the snowball. “How, uh, how come—”

“Oh,” says the devil. A smile creases his dreadful old face. “Thought it might wake you up, is all.”

The child, standing in the doorway with snowmelt dripping through her fingertips, stares at him. She remembers where she is. Who he is. Who they’ve decided, in comfortable accord, that he is.

“Da,” she says. Her voice comes out a croak, for some reason. “What’re you doing?”

Her father blinks at her. Then he blinks down at the bowl.

“I hope you said oatcake,” he says, raising his eyebrows, “and not clambake—”

His hands are butter-sticky. Hers are full of snow. Rather than walking into his arms, the child bumps her head into his shoulder.

“Didn’t have to mind me none,” she mumbles into his stupid, smoke-smelly sleeve. Then she remembers, at long last, what she was supposed to say. “Bad dream, is all.”

“And it’s a good thing, too.” Her father, his face sharp and firelit, smiles at her—devilish, she thinks, in only the warmest way. “Or we wouldn’t have time for tea. Get the kettle, would you?”

[easterlyartists]

New work by @easterlyartists member @angeliquefrasermac Angelique Fraser-Mackenzie. This is "In the Groove" (watercolour on rag paper). Angelique's practice has recently taken a new direction, adopting something of a 30s figurative style: you can see it and more of her work in our current exhibition "Art for all Seasons", which continues today 9 Dec and this weekend at @ferini_art_gallery The Ferini Gallery in Pakefield. Ferini is at 27 All Saints Road, Pakefield NR33 0JL and is open Friday - Sunday, 11am - 4pm. Entry is free and all work is for sale. "Art for all Seasons" runs till 18 December, then closes briefly over Christmas before reopening 30 December - 8 January 2023. More details at www.easterly.org.uk/art-for-all-seasons or follow #art4allseasons. And if you'd like to HEAR Angelique talking about her work, head over to www.easterly.org.uk/bbc-radio for a detailed discussion between her and BBC Radio Suffolk's @journojon Jon Wright, together with 9 of the other artists participating in the show. --------------- #ferini_art_gallery #journojon #angeliquefrasermac #easterlyartists #britishartists #contemporaryartpainting #modernartists #visualartwork #suffolkart #suffolkartist #suffolkartists #lowestoftart #markmakingart #watercolourart #watercolours #watercolorartwork #watercolorpaintings #watercolors #watercolorillustrations #aquamedia #ragpaper #figurativeart #figurative_art #figurative_painters (at Pakefield, Suffolk, United Kingdom) https://www.instagram.com/p/Cl8EI4WD8RQ/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[fiercerthanyou]

Rashid Johnason, ‘Untitled’ (Anxious Bruise Drawing), 2021,

Oil on rag paper,

38 ¼ x 50 in. (97.2 x 127 in.)

Courtesy: Christie’s

[papirene-royzn]

They (your wives) are your garments and ye are their garments. [...] Eat and drink, until the white thread of dawn appear to you distinct from its black thread.

Chapter (2) sūrat l-baqarah (The Cow) 2:187.

[actualshonenprotagonist]

Let's talk about cabbage! Not the vegetable. Cabbage is a term for the fabric scraps that accumulate on the floor of a tailor shop, or any place that fabric is cut. In the 18th century when customers provided their own material, cabbage was considered part of a tailor's pay. But why would he want such small pieces of fabric? Sure, he could use it to patch things, or there might be a few pieces big enough to piece together a lining or a pocket, but the main reason was recycling. Wool scraps could be sold to a woolen mill where they would be broken down into loose fibres and respun, or used as insulation. Cotton and linen scraps could be sold to a paper mill, where they would be turned into paper. You can actually date books and documents by whether the paper contains a higher percentage of linen vs cotton-- the invention of the cotton gin in the 1790s made cotton much cheaper to produce, and it overtook linen as the most popular plant fibre for clothing. #clothinghistory #textilehistory #textilerecycling #linen #paper #wool #cotton #ragpaper #cottonragpaper https://www.instagram.com/p/B40osUhjad4/?igshid=1ui7v6drn8863

[lindseyjporter]

Blues and greens in this 16” x 20” abstract botanical that is available @annconnellyfineart ! . . . #blueandgreen #abstractpainting #abstractart #botanical #contemporaryart #inkpainting #ragpaper #design #originalart #artcollector #lindseyjporter #lindseyporter (at Ann Connelly Fine Art) https://www.instagram.com/p/ByBiQjfnHs-/?igshid=5bv34ibbth3j

[martinbernstein-artist]

#art #abstractart #abstractpainting #painting #acrylic on #ragpaper #linen #paintingonpaper #art #mica #mixedmedia #contemporaryart #artist #artist #martinbernstein @martinbernstein martin@martinbernstein.com for more martinbernstein.com https://www.instagram.com/p/BrImiGWFH6O/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=a8w1e2krpmlg

[logogloogloogloo]

Seth Price / Found in the Street, 2007

giclee print on handmade Tibetan rag paper

[nicolaslaborie]

Stamped and signed #limitededition #print @hahnemuehle_global #ragpaper #wetplate #collodion #availableforsale https://www.instagram.com/p/BmppPCYh9mU/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=1gir1wnf4vn5m

[thesilkthread]

Block printing on my leather art journal. Snap closure. I made it with 25 sheets of rag paper. Who doesn't love hummingbirds! In my shop www.thesilkthread.com/shop #thesilkthread #artjournal #leatherboundbooks #hummingbird #ragpaper (at The Silk Thread) https://www.instagram.com/p/CQ1ulWsJqUF/?utm_medium=tumblr

[mrglitterati]

Paper may seem like a simple tool, but its complicated history has had a strong effect on artists and writers. Here’s why artists should care about paper.

[hillwench]

“Self-portrait” Nikon FM2, Tri-X pushed +1 Silver print on rag paper 1996 #selfportrait #ftmchenry #selfportraitphotography #bwphotography #mask #abstractportrait #artistsoninstagram #artphotography #abstractartist #abstractaddict #abstractphotography #abstraktekunst #abstraktefotografie #blackandwhitephotography #handprinted #filednegativecarrier #ragpaper #artonpaper #artistsoninstagram #artoftheday #nikon #kodakfilm #trix400 #analogphotography #analog https://www.instagram.com/p/CLkcfVIn0mE/?igshid=up2syixjxcwe

[easterlyartists]

We've fallen a bit behind with our posts recently, so it's time for a catch-up. Forgive us if, in the interests of saving time, some of the captions are a bit brief. Let's start with the first of two new paintings from @easterlyartists member @angeliquefrasermac Angelique Fraser-Mackenzie, whose recent work has taken a new direction, adopting something of a 30s figurative style. This is "One and All" (watercolour on rag paper). --------------- #angeliquefrasermac #easterlyartists #britishartists #contemporaryartpainting #modernartists #visualartwork #suffolkart #suffolkartist #suffolkartists #lowestoftart #markmakingart #watercolourart #watercolours #watercolorartwork #watercolorpaintings #watercolors #watercolorillustrations #ragpaper #figurativeart #figurative_art #figurative_painters (at Lowestoft) https://www.instagram.com/p/CeeYMzADyGB/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[whenmomsanartist]

Photo a day. Day 18 One . . . #fmsphotoaday #fmspad #fmapad2020 #fms_onecolour #whenmomsanartist_cgd #cindygardduchene #ragpaper https://www.instagram.com/p/CI96M7bAClI/?igshid=g4g2wscfbpr4

[papirene-royzn]

The second [amulet] was intended to secure for the wearer love and friendship. It was written with a copper pen upon a strip of parchment, with ink made from lilies and crocuses.

Amulets and Superstitions.