Blood Moon Afghan

Evelyn Lambart Shorts

The Lion and the Mouse is a classic fable that highlights how huge contributions can come from unexpected places, that a kindness is never wasted, and that even when you’re the king of the forest, you can be in need of help.

This 1976 version of the story was created by National Film Board technical director and ‘First Lady of Canadian Animation’ Evelyn Lambart in her signature style: “…paper cutouts transferred to lithograph plate which she would then paint and animate.”

In this short animation by Evelyn Lambart, a greedy little blue jay carries away whatever his beak can grasp. Berries, birds’ eggs (nests and all), and even the sun in the sky go into his secret cache. Nothing is safe from his consuming avarice. But, as in Lambart’s film Fine Feathers, there is a moral tucked away. The blue jay learns a lesson about the importance of sharing, and he and his friends are all the merrier for it.

Canadian animator Evelyn Lambart is celebrated for her trailblazing contributions to animation and her beautifully illustrated work with cut outs of construction paper and painted zinc. In 1942, she was the first woman animator to join the National Film Board of Canada where she worked for more than 25 years. The Hoarder, shown above, was created in 1969.

Fine Feathers (1968)

From Evelyn Lambart, renowned Canadian animator and technical director with the National Film Board of Canada, this is Fine Feathers, a 1968 cut paper animation about two rival birds that trade their plumage for green cedar and red oak leaves. Of her beautifully illustrated animation work, Lambart said:

“I loved to do the whole job myself, you know, figure out what you need to tell your story, and then to make it myself, to design the character and paint it and draw it and then to sit under the camera and move it. I did all the shooting myself too. I used to hope I was making films that were simple enough for children but still interesting to adults.”

St Blaise Abbey Color Palette

Leonilla Color Palette

In a daring pose reminiscent of harem scenes and odalisques, the princess Leonilla of Sayn-Wittgenstein-Sayn reclines on a low Turkish sofa on a veranda overlooking a lush tropical landscape. Only her unassailable social position made it possible for Franz Xaver Winterhalter to use such a sensual pose for a full-length portrait in Paris in 1843.

Known for her great beauty and intellect, the princess is resplendent in a luxurious gown of ivory silk moiré with a pink sash around her waist. A deep purple mantle wraps around her back and falls across her smooth arms. Under carefully arched eyebrows, her heavy lidded eyes gaze languidly at the viewer while she artfully toys with the large pearls around her neck. Winterhalter contrasted sumptuous fabrics and vivid colors against creamy flesh to heighten the sensuality of the pose, the model, and the luxuriant setting.

Image courtesy of The Ghetty Museum

Franz Xaver Winterhalter (German, 1805 - 1873)

Portrait of Leonilla, Princess of Sayn-Wittgenstein-Sayn, 1843, Oil on canvas

142.2 × 212.1 cm (56 × 83 1/2 in.), 86.PA.534

The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles

Champagne Color Palette

Turquoise Color Palette

Snow Tree Color Palette

Landscape with Lanterns Color Palette

Alcoholic Oranges

The word ‘isochronal‘ means “equal or uniform in time”—iso meaning equal and chrono referring to time—which makes sense when watching this mysterious isochronous curve video.

In this old Curiosity Show clip, science educator and co-host Rob Morrison demonstrates how to draw an isochronous or tautochrone curve and why these curves are extraordinary. Watch as every steel ball dropped on any point in the curve meets in the middle of the curve at the same time as a marble dropped from any point on the other side. Or as described by mathematician, physicist, astronomer and inventor Christiaan Huygens in 1659:

On a cycloid whose axis is erected on the perpendicular and whose vertex is located at the bottom, the times of descent, in which a body arrives at the lowest point at the vertex after having departed from any point on the cycloid, are equal to each other…

The award-winning Curiosity Show ran from 1972 to 1990 for school-age kids in Australia. Co-hosts Morrison and Deane Hutton won the rights to the show in 2012, and now share clips on their YouTube Channel.