#IIC Nature and Us: a history through art

 This is such a thought-provoking programme that charts humanity's relationship with the natural world, through art, from the earliest cave paintings to the present day (yet to watch).

In episode two, I was particularly struck by the paintings of Ustad Mansur, a Mughal painter working in the early 17th C who documented the natural world in incredible detail and was the first person to depict a dodo in colour; his painting of a chameleon is also so well observed, a strong graphic image with layers of colour and marks used in relief to depict the skin of  the animal - I always enjoy a dot or two and this could suggest a way of painting my animals.




The programme also made reference to the Chinese Painter Xiang Shenmo and his scroll painting, Reading in the Autumn Mountains, a beautifully composed image that shows humans as part of nature but also dwarfed by nature; I think the way trees and leaves are represented could be very helpful as I start to work on the detail of the plants in my work:  using outline and colour in quite a graphic rather than representational manner.


BBC Nature and Us: A History Through Art
















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