Service Description

TALES OF THE MARVELLOUS AND NEWS OF THE STRANGE CLASSES ‘Aja’ib wa-Ghara’ib Natural Marvels and Oddities: Natural magic and correspondences Transformation: the Monkey and Salmon-coloured horse. Transformation is a characteristic of the 1001 Nights. People are turned into animals by magic, jinn disguise themselves as different creatures and that is how you end up with talking monkeys. ‘Monkeys will be monkeys’ is a Chinese saying. Monkeys are clever, resourceful and definitely mischievous. Monkeys built a bridge from India to the island of Lanka in the Ramayana. Horses in miniatures can be blue, pink, turquoise dappled or piebald (a bit like some fantastic trees, actually). Here is a white and salmon horse. You can paint a wild coloured wild horse or even a unicorn. Borne from a desire to present a truly comprehensive picture of all miniature painting, and emerging from my latest ongoing research into the world of the 1001 Arabian Nights, these classes are like a cabinet of curiosities for miniature painting. The TALES classes comprise 3 strands: Characterless Characters, Objects and Ingenious Devices and our final strand - Natural Marvels and Wonders. If, like me, you find stories and marvels irresistible, join me in painting a collection of marvels and wonders. We have covered the Vegetal and the Mineral - it’s time to address the Animal. Humans have found wonder in the tiniest fleas and the wide open seas and the far flung stars (and now we’re going to Mars). These things are the stuff of stories, the razm o bazm (fight and feast) of the Shahnameh and the magic everyday fabric that is the stock in trade of the Nights. The many varied and countless aspects of the world that was Shahrazad’s master plan: show them all to Shahriyar and present a picture of all life to him so he sees the nuances and not only the extremes, and comes to completion through her stories.