Give it some Lovecraft...

In case you're wondering where I've been all this time since the last post, rest assured that I haven't been in a state of deep sleep, or, to quote the immortal words of Abdul Alhazred: "That is not dead which can eternal lie. And with strange aeons even death may die" - actually I've been busy trying to work off this "Lockdown Belly", not helped by watching "Lovecraft Country".

Speaking of which, it's a TV series that is going to divide some viewers and will be appreciated by others, especially those who are readers of Lovecraft's work, since it's enjoyably scattered with literary references to various stories from the Lovecraft "Mythos".

In fact my Yeti's hog the Widescreen Ultra HD TV when it's on just to catch any mention of the dreaded "Mi-Go"...that's Tibetan for "Yeti"...which are featured in Lovecraftian lore...deeply annoying.

I do hope you enjoy the new "HP Lovecraft" tee-shirt, though cost issues meant that it couldn't be woven from Tibetan Yak fur and I had to settle for cotton.

The Wallace Collection, London

I recently visited The Wallace Collection in London to see a stunning exhibition of Indian Colonial Period art - it's on until March 2020 and well worth a look.

What was striking is the painstaking & mind-boggling level of detail in the botanical, biological and architectural art by indigenous artists on display - in particular, in the architectural renderings where the smallest details such as Islamic inscriptions and marble inlay work on, for example, The Taj Mahal are reproduced accurately at a very tiny scale - we're talking millimeters.

All this was achieved with no more than brushes with a very small number of hairs, watercolors and plenty of time and patience, along with an urge to reproduce things accurately.

It made me think how relatively easy it is to achieve similar levels of detail with present-day digital technology, although the time taken on "The Himalaya Palace" print spanned a few weeks at least and I strove to achieve a very fine level of detail, such as the tile work on the exterior and Oriental style friezes rendered in ceramic tiles under the roof which can be seen to its best advantage in large format prints.

Of course, the other thing that makes these works unique is that they are singular pieces of art, even if they were reproduced for print later, which seems unlikely since this is the first time that they have been seen publicly, whereas digital work can be reproduced endlessly without loss of quality.

Go see it if you can.

Virtually naked...

Installing the "Artivive" (search for "Artivive" on the App Store) "Augmented Reality" app on your phone allows you to view a virtual gallery of items available to buy at www.thenakedswami.com on a mobile device with the app installed, by pointing your camera at the image below !

Try it !...it's fun !...

Once you have installed the app and registered with "Artivive", you should see two slideshows suspended magically in 3D space when you aim your camera phone at the image below :

You can test this by going to the site Facebook page, opening the app on your mobile device and waiting for Artivive to recognize the trigger image shown above - also included in the FB post - it will also work by pointing at this blog post.

The two slideshows show items currently available from the site and also items that can be purchased on request directly via email but that are currently not on the site itself.

The app integration here is still in a "Beta" phase so expect small changes to the content in future - you can see what is possible by visiting the Artivive home page for examples by designers and artists.

#Artivive #AugmentedReality #teeshirts #prints #slideshow #nakedswami #gallery #virtual #3Dspace