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testimony
Thierry Bonnaffé, also art photographer
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Pastelcrayon on flax
Thierry Bonnaffé makes pasteldrawings on flax, the most basic, timeless and most expert drawing method ever… Flemish Flax Fibers Flax fiber is extracted from the bast or skin of the stem of flax plant. Flax fiber is soft, lustrous and flexible. Flax is the strongest and oldest of the vegetable fibres used by man It is stronger than cotton fiber but less elastic. Flax fibers are amongst the oldest fiber crops in the world. The use of flax for the production of linen goes back 5000 years. Pictures on tombs and temple walls at Thebes depict flowering flax plants. Flax canvas - it has always been the painter’s favourite. It has proved to be most resistant and less deformable. It should be spanned from yarns having the same thickness. Being the main prop for painting, canvas was used in the old ages mostly in Italy and France, and later in the Netherlands - where the canvas replaced the classic wood prop for painting. There’s evidence that the ancient Greeks, 400 AD. used the canvas for painting. (for example Apelles - Greek artist) So did the ancient Romans, according to Plinius, writings. Dependant upon climatic conditions, characteristics of the sown flax and fields, the flax remains in the ground between 2 weeks and 2 months for retting. As a result of alternating rain and the sun, an enzymatic action degrades the pectins which bind fibres to the straw. The farmers turn over the straw during retting to evenly rett the stalks. When the straw is retted and sufficiently dry, it is rolled up. It will then be stored by farmers before scutching to extract fibres. The Quality of the Linen
Flemish linen is the brand name given to linen produced in Flanders. Linen is cloth made from the flax fibre,
which was grown on the borders of the Leie .
The Flax Field
‘If the sun could write, it would write like Streuvels.’
Stijn Streuvels-
Famous
Belgian Stijn Streuvels (1871-1969) was an important figure in Flemish literature. His stories and novels, which began to appear in 1899, depict West-Flemish peasant life. The forces of nature occupy the center of his fictional world, as in his masterpiece “De Vlaschaard” (The Flax Field, 1907), a novel that transcended the limitations of its regional genre. The changing seasons and the power of the elements are convincingly evoked. Lovingly and yet dramatically, the author depicts the conversations and summer festivals of the peasants who, within their limited human possibilities, are integrated within nature as a whole. His work shows clearly that he knew their language and character inside out and was deeply inspired by nature. The book begins with a farmer called Vermeulen grumbling at the stubborn mist which refuses to disperse before the sun. Streuvels sets the character down before you like a rock, a giant. In comparison Vermeulen’s high-spirited son Louis and the restless temptress Schellebelle change with the weather. A tragedy results. The generation conflict which erupts on the ‘enchanted fields’ beneath the ‘fertile sky’ will appeal not only to country people but also to the disenchanted in modern cities – the only requirement is a willingness to be swept up by Streuvels’s powerful style.
poetry &
literature
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