The wonderful world of Vittorio Costantini

 

Mondo Vetro

Visit of the Musée d'Opale-Sud in Berck-sur-Mer, France

The Museum d'Opale-Sud in Berck-sur-Mer with its wonderful collection of maritime paintings of artists such as Tattegrain, Roussel et Chambon has a long tradition of combining classic and contemporary art. From September 14th until December 31 it is host to the exhibition "Mondo Vetro - Histoires Naturelles" with some of the most intricate and detailed work of Vittorio Costantini.

Since we have been fortunate to meet the artist in person during our visit to Murano in February (see archive), Nina, Sally, Pat, Caroline and myself decided that we wanted to take the chance and visit the museum.

Take a peek with us into the exhibition and enjoy Vittorio's wonderful world of sea creatures, birds and insects.





Musée d'Opale Sud , general view



Musée d'Opale Sud , general view

Vittorio Costantini in front of his water lillies

Water lillies - detail

Anemone



Octopus

My personal favourites - cuttlefish

Incredible details - anemone with three fish

Sea horse

Sea horse

Sting ray

Sand eels

Sally and Nina taking it all in

Pied avocet

Puffin

 

 

 

 

We are so grateful that Vittorio and his wife Graziella take their time to show us around. This has been an amazing experience!

 

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After our tour through the museum we head to our hotel in Fort-Mahon-Plage. Even excited lampworkers need to eat and rest sometimes...

 

 

HHHHmmmmm!

...

 

A very nice day comes to a close

 

This has been a fantastic weekend. Thank you everybody for taking the time and making it happen!



Colors of the Gambia...

From April 3 until April 10 I was fortunate to visit The Gambia together with my family. It was an amazing trip. We saw so much and were amazed by the beauty of the landscape and the hospitality of the people. Of course, I was again searching for color and inspiration...

The desert ... Interesting to see the earth's curvature

...did I promise colors?

...boys...the same all over the world...

Beads??...No, BIRDS on a string...

 

It was amazing to see how people deal with the difficulties of daily life. And yet, how friendly they are no matter where you go.

Colors seem to fade in the incredible basking heat of the early afternoon...

Time for a little nap..

...have you ever seen a colorful crocodile? This one was completely covered in small algae... Happens when you lay still for too long.

The Kingfisher. Stunning turquoise and red...

You will also find typical beach colors...

The boats at the fishing harbour are very colorful. Predominant colors are red, green and yellow.

Every evening, when the fisher boats return to shore, there is a great gathering at the fishing harbour. Very interesting to see the variety of fish that is on offer here...

...a stunning sunrise on one of the last days of our journey...

Green! Not often to be seen, but when you find it it is vibrant!

An old shin of a milipede. Fortunately the owner had already run away...

I hope that you have enjoyed this little overview over some of the African colors I was able to grab with my camera. The trip was really an eye opener. Not only for me in search of color inspiration...

The beauty of Spring

This morning the sun rose slowly over the treetops in the distance. I can hardly wait for all the last signs of Winter to vanish...

Shortly after that, when we started our daily school run, the lawn in front of our house glistened with thousands of tiny dew drops.

Really beautiful!

This looks like the perfect setting for a bunch of colors. Yesterday I made some cabochons. I wonder what I am going to do with those...

Short update on beads in March

It has been a while since my last post.

Well, time flies! Here are some updates of my recent work.

small bottle for the little finds on a walk on the beach...

clear glass and stripes - hard to resist

Essex Lampworker's Gathering

Although the weather was really dreadful yesterday, we drove to the Barleylands Craft Village in Billericay in order to attend the gathering of the Essex Lampworker's group.

We had so much fun. Not only that the five ladies of the Murano trip were reunited! We met a couple of new faces and very talented lampworkers!!

Sally Carver demonstrating an implosion-bead

"Glass from the past" soon filled up with numerous glass-enthusiasts and lampworkers...

I especially liked the store front. Varios artists have participated in making the large stained glass window above the entrance...

Unfortunately I did not take any pictures of the meeting or the bead-swap. (I was too busy browsing through everyone's bead stash...)

However. The afternoon just flew by and everybody seemed to have been satisfied with all the new impressions. I'm really looking forward to the next meeting.

Frequent and unusual visitors...

This morning started with lovely sunshine and a light breeze. Very nice weather for a Sunday... And for those who like to hang out in our garden to enjoy the food that we have actually not put out for them...

Well... First come, first serve...


For the first time since we have moved here, we had a very unusual visitor. One of the numerous pheasants that roam around in our village found his way into our garden. Obviously attracted by the birds seed as well.

I like them very much. They normally walk past our house in large groups. But this one had come all on its own. He wandered over the lawn, pecking here and there, until he decided to hide behind the neighbor's bush... Maybe he had spotted me...

The colors outside are still wintery. Dull browns and grays dominate. But the songbirds have already begun to sing and claim their territories. Spring cannot be far away anymore...