Genest Le Colimacon 1050pc Tibetan Thangka Khasarpana Avalokiteshvara DSC05448
Update March 2021: As a taster for Friday's talk by John and Pete on Oriental themed jigsaws, here is one of the largest wooden jigsaws I've done. It is an extreme line-cut by Genest, so you know it was difficult - but not nearly as difficult an image as some of the Thangka designs that Mike has put together.
After a long break it took a while to get back into this again and for the first hour it felt like I was getting nowhere, slowly. With patience, and adding the odd piece here and there, things eventually began to fall into place, and the location of assemblages emerged, one by one. In all the jigsaw took me 6 days work.
The 1050pc jigsaw measures 31 x 49cm when complete. It is one of three large jigsaws I own cut by Genest Desfosses, Le Colimacon, all based on far eastern art. This is Khasarpana Avalokiteshvara from the 19th/20thC and containing five figures, the others are earlier images. The figures on it are larger and less confusing than the others and those which Billsville Mike has done.
The central figure holds a lotus stem on his left, his right hand in a gesture of compassion, with an antelope skin around his neck. Khasarpana Avalokiteshvara is the bodhisattva who embodies the compassion of all Buddhas. The smaller blue figure, surrounded by flames, with four or six arms, a rosary of skulls and trident, snakes on his belly, headband of skulls and a belt of heads, trampling on elephants is Mahakala, a fierce wrathful protector emanation of Avalkiteshvara. At the top two bodhisattvas sit on a ring of clouds, one red and one saffron-skinned. Another standing figure holds a platter of fruits.
A thangka usually depicts a central Buddhist deity or teacher surrounded by associated gods and lineage figures, describes events or myths attributed to important religious teachers or outlines a particular deity's realm. The viewer accrues merit and makes spiritual progress my meditating on the iconographic imagery.
Genest Le Colimacon 1050pc Tibetan Thangka Khasarpana Avalokiteshvara DSC05448
Update March 2021: As a taster for Friday's talk by John and Pete on Oriental themed jigsaws, here is one of the largest wooden jigsaws I've done. It is an extreme line-cut by Genest, so you know it was difficult - but not nearly as difficult an image as some of the Thangka designs that Mike has put together.
After a long break it took a while to get back into this again and for the first hour it felt like I was getting nowhere, slowly. With patience, and adding the odd piece here and there, things eventually began to fall into place, and the location of assemblages emerged, one by one. In all the jigsaw took me 6 days work.
The 1050pc jigsaw measures 31 x 49cm when complete. It is one of three large jigsaws I own cut by Genest Desfosses, Le Colimacon, all based on far eastern art. This is Khasarpana Avalokiteshvara from the 19th/20thC and containing five figures, the others are earlier images. The figures on it are larger and less confusing than the others and those which Billsville Mike has done.
The central figure holds a lotus stem on his left, his right hand in a gesture of compassion, with an antelope skin around his neck. Khasarpana Avalokiteshvara is the bodhisattva who embodies the compassion of all Buddhas. The smaller blue figure, surrounded by flames, with four or six arms, a rosary of skulls and trident, snakes on his belly, headband of skulls and a belt of heads, trampling on elephants is Mahakala, a fierce wrathful protector emanation of Avalkiteshvara. At the top two bodhisattvas sit on a ring of clouds, one red and one saffron-skinned. Another standing figure holds a platter of fruits.
A thangka usually depicts a central Buddhist deity or teacher surrounded by associated gods and lineage figures, describes events or myths attributed to important religious teachers or outlines a particular deity's realm. The viewer accrues merit and makes spiritual progress my meditating on the iconographic imagery.