conversations.from: human
conversations.value: a description for a book titled Drawing and Painting Insects about B>the, National, Portrait with the genre: Arts & Photography, History & Criticism
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conversations.value: <B>the author</B>&#160;is a beekeeper and is&#160;known for his paintings of beekeepers and engravings of bees. He is a gallery curator and has pieces in the National Portrait Gallery and the Victoria and Albert Theatre Museum in&#160;London.
conversations.from: human
conversations.value: the first two paragraphs for this book
conversations.from: assistant
conversations.value: Drawing and Painting Insects
  Insects provide many opportunities for complex motifs in the graphic and fine arts, lending their abstract beauty to many art forms.
  Bell draws lines freely by trailing liquid beeswax on a cloth support. The beeswax cools and solidifies to form a barrier to the colourful dyes with which she floods the cloth. Once the batik is finished the wax is removed with heat leaving lines that trace its irregular pathways. Pools of colour are enhanced with directly painted lines of dye. Kareen Bell takes inspiration from butterfly wing shapes and patterns and creates flower-like arrangements, using a batik technique in which unprimed canvas has been stained with coloured dyes. Such is the decorative qualities of many insects that beauty in abstract patterns and shapes is readily found. Bell has a savant's inner eye and spirit, and uses abstraction to distil an other-worldly vision.
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conversations.value: four more paragraphs
conversations.from: assistant
conversations.value: This is an image where insects take an active role in the narrative. The fact that bees cooperate to store honey, made with great labour from the nectar they have collected, only to have it stolen by us, makes a fascinating subject.
  After completing a five-day shamanic darkness retreat with the Sacred Trust in Dorset, Clive Hedger reinforced his desire to connect more directly with the natural world by painting: a shaman is a messenger between the spirit and the human world.
  Without art school training, Hedger's naive style is unhindered by preoccupation with technique and his personal spiritual journey unfolds daily; his creative process in tune with his optimism. Through his naïve-style shamanic practice is shared directly with us.
  Hedger prefers to use acrylic on canvas or board and these are very suitable mediums for his clear, bold designs and juxtaposed motifs. Colour and form are not premeditated but arrived at intuitively; anatomical correctness is not a pressing concern though his subjects are irrefutably insects in the sense that they possess the correct body parts and number of wings. Hedger's work is overtly shamanic but it could be said all artists touch upon shamanism without realizing it? The concentration required to produce a successful insect painting, drawing or illustration could be akin to the shaman's empathy.
conversations.from: human
conversations.value: Delete the last sentence.
conversations.from: assistant
conversations.value: This is an image where insects take an active role in the narrative. The fact that bees cooperate to store honey, made with great labour from the nectar they have collected, only to have it stolen by us, makes a fascinating subject.
  After completing a five-day shamanic darkness retreat with the Sacred Trust in Dorset, Clive Hedger reinforced his desire to connect more directly with the natural world by painting: a shaman is a messenger between the spirit and the human world.
  Without art school training, Hedger's naive style is unhindered by preoccupation with technique and his personal spiritual journey unfolds daily; his creative process in tune with his optimism. Through his naïve-style shamanic practice is shared directly with us.
  Hedger prefers to use acrylic on canvas or board and these are very suitable mediums for his clear, bold designs and juxtaposed motifs. Colour and form are not premeditated but arrived at intuitively; anatomical correctness is not a pressing concern though his subjects are irrefutably insects in the sense that they possess the correct body parts and number of wings.
conversations.from: human
conversations.value: the last four paragraphs
conversations.from: assistant
conversations.value: Bees 13-15, 23-26, 40-41, **** , , **** , , , , **** , 125-129, **, ,** 146-149, **** , , **, ,** , **** , , ****
  Butterflies , , , , , 38-39, **,** , **,** , **,** , , , **,** , , , , , **,** , , **, ,** , 121-122, **,** , ,
  Dragonflies , , **,** , **, **, , , , **, ,** 84-85, **** , , , **, , , , ,** , , **,** 143-146, **,** , **, , , **
  Tyzack, Andrew **, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,** 160-161, **, , , , , , ,** 178-9, ****