Category Archives: #Paint50

Listed Today: Hand-Painted Stargate Cat on Papyrus

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The absence of cats, with few exceptions, among the Goa’uld who are still living as Egyptian gods in the Stargate Universe needs to be explained. The result is this parody artifact. The column of hieroglyphs says “A cat eats the evil Go’auld.” The image is based on one of a cat hunting with the family of Nebamun.

Stargate Cat

Stargate Cat

Photography Prints

The Goa’uld are a fictional symbiotic race of ancient astronauts from the American-Canadian military science fiction television franchise Stargate. The Goa’uld are parasites from the planet P3X-888, integrated within a host, most of the time human. The resulting creatures are a powerful race bent on galactic conquest and domination, largely without pity, compassion or remorse. The Goa’uld largely abandoned P3X-888 after deciphering the Stargate, spreading throughout the galaxy and conquering other races. Eventually, the Goa’uld began to die out, until in the eighth or ninth millennium BC Ra discovered Earth and found ancient humans to be much more suitable hosts, due to the ease by which they can be repaired by Goa’uld technology. Ra’s rule over Earth came to an end with a rebellion in the third millennium BC, they had forgotten about Earth until the twentieth century.

They are collectively the greatest extraterrestrial threat to Earth in the first eight seasons of Stargate SG-1 known to the Stargate Command (SGC). They are pejoratively called “snakes” or “snakeheads” by Jack O’Neill. The Goa’uld are the main enemies of SG-1 for most of the series, until they are replaced in this capacity by the Ori in seasons 9 and 10. They also appear in the Stargate Atlantis episode “Critical Mass”, and in the DVD movie Stargate: Continuum.

In the Stargate universe, the word “Goa’uld” means “children of the gods”. I decided to transliterate rather than translate because “children of the gods” doesn’t sound remotely like “Goa’uld” in Egyptian. It was, however, strange to transliterate the word as Ancient Egyptian usually drops the vowels. I decided not to drop them and instead spelled it out completely and added the snake determinative as if it were an adopted word some scribe had to invent.

This piece is painted by hand in acrylic paint and ink on authetic, sustainable Egyptian papyrus. Every attempt has been made to make sure the colors on your screen match the original, but due to variations on computer displays it may appear differently to you.

Interactive Order Nine Magic Square Puzzle Art

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Painting number 17 of the 50 Paintings for 2012 goal, now available as a standard greeting card or museum-quality fine art print– rolled, under glass or on canvas.

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This interactive painting is a jumbled order-9 square, or a semimagic square, meaning the rows and columns add to the same number but the diagonals do not. Jumbling the magic square into a semimagic square actually makes it more challenging to solve as the pattern is more difficult. However, to make it a bit easier, only prime numbers have been omitted. Buy this piece on canvas and solve it with a paint writer or a paint pen to make it truly interactive. Difficulty level: Intermediate.

Recreational mathematics includes logic puzzles and other puzzles that require deductive reasoning, the aesthetics of mathematics, and peculiar or amusing stories and coincidences about mathematics and mathematicians. Some of the more well-known topics in recreational mathematics are magic squares and fractals. Not all problems in this field require a knowledge of advanced mathematics, and thus, recreational mathematics often attracts the curiosity of non-mathematicians, and inspires their further study of mathematics.

In recreational mathematics, a magic square of order n is an arrangement of n-squared numbers, usually distinct integers, in a square, such that the n numbers in all rows, all columns, and both diagonals sum to the same constant. A normal magic square contains the integers from 1 to n-squared. The term “magic square” is also sometimes used to refer to any of various types of word square.

Magic squares have fascinated humanity throughout the ages, and have been around for over 4,120 years. They are found in a number of cultures, including Egypt and India, engraved on stone or metal and worn as talismans, the belief being that magic squares had astrological and divinatory qualities, their usage ensuring longevity and prevention of diseases.

Magic squares were known to Chinese mathematicians, as early as 650 BCE and Arab mathematicians, possibly as early as the 7th century, when the Arabs conquered northwestern parts of the Indian subcontinent and learned Indian mathematics and astronomy, including other aspects of combinatorial mathematics. The first magic squares of order 5 and 6 appear in an encyclopedia from Baghdad circa 983 CE, the Encyclopedia of the Brethren of Purity (Rasa’il Ihkwan al-Safa); simpler magic squares were known to several earlier Arab mathematicians. Some of these squares were later used in conjunction with magic letters as in (Shams Al-ma’arif) to assist Arab illusionists and magicians.

Chinese literature dating from as early as 650 BC tells the legend of Lo Shu or “scroll of the river Lo”. In ancient China there was a huge flood. The great king Yu tried to channel the water out to sea where then emerged from the water a turtle with a curious figure/pattern on its shell; circular dots of numbers which were arranged in a three by three grid pattern such that the sum of the numbers in each row, column and diagonal was the same: 15, which is also the number of days in each of the 24 cycles of the Chinese solar year. This pattern, in a certain way, was used by the people in controlling the river.

The Lo Shu Square, as the magic square on the turtle shell is called, is the unique normal magic square of order three in which 1 is at the bottom and 2 is in the upper right corner. Every normal magic square of order three is obtained from the Lo Shu by rotation or reflection.

The Square of Lo Shu is also referred to as the Magic Square of Saturn or Chronos.

The order-4 magic square in Albrecht Dürer’s engraving Melencolia I is believed to be the first seen in European art. It is very similar to Yang Hui’s square, which was created in China about 250 years before Dürer’s time. The sum 34 can be found in the rows, columns, diagonals, each of the quadrants, the center four squares, and the corner squares(of the 4×4 as well as the four contained 3×3 grids).

(Visit Wikipedia for the complete original article on Magic Square.)

Red Wine Painting

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Painting number 16 of the 50 Paintings for 2012 goal, now available as a standard greeting card or museum-quality fine art print– rolled, under glass or on canvas.

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Wine is an alcoholic beverage, made of fermented fruit juice, usually from grapes. The natural chemical balance of grapes lets them ferment without the addition of sugars, acids, enzymes, or other nutrients. Grape wine is produced by fermenting crushed grapes using various types of yeast. Yeast consumes the sugars in the grapes and converts them into alcohol. Different varieties of grapes and strains of yeasts produce different types of wine.

Wines made from other fruits, such as apples and berries, are usually named after the fruit from which they are produced (for example, apple wine or elderberry wine) and are generically called fruit wine or country wine (not to be confused with the French term vin de pays). Others, such as barley wine and rice wine (i.e., sake), are made from starch-based materials and resemble beer and spirit more than wine, while ginger wine is fortified with brandy. In these cases, the term “wine” refers to the higher alcohol content rather than the production process.

The commercial use of the English word “wine” (and its equivalent in other languages) is protected by law in many jurisdictions. Wine has a rich history dating back thousands of years, with the earliest known production occurring around 8,000 years ago on the territory of modern-day Georgia. It first appeared in the Balkans at about 4500 BC and was very common in ancient Greece, Thrace and Rome. Wine has also played an important role in religion throughout history. The Greek god Dionysus and the Roman equivalent Bacchus represented wine, and the drink is also used in Christian Eucharist ceremonies and the Jewish Kiddush (among many other Jewish ceremonies).

(Visit Wikipedia for the complete original article on Wine.)

Champagne Painting

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Painting number 15 of the 50 Paintings for 2012 goal, now available as a standard greeting card or museum-quality fine art print– rolled, under glass or on canvas.

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Sparkling wine is a wine with significant levels of carbon dioxide in it making it fizzy. The carbon dioxide may result from natural fermentation, either in a bottle, in a large tank designed to withstand the pressures involved, or as a result of carbon dioxide injection.

The classic example of a sparkling wine is Champagne, but this wine is exclusively produced in the Champagne region of France. Many sparkling wines are produced in other countries and regions, such as Espumante in Portugal, Cava in Spain, Franciacorta, Trento, Oltrepo Pavese Metodo Classico and Asti in Italy (the generic Italian term for sparkling wine being spumante) and Cap Classique in South Africa. Most countries reserve the word Champagne for a specific type from the Champagne region of France. The French terms “Mousseux” or “Cremant” are used to refer to sparkling wine not made in the Champagne region. German and Austrian sparkling wines are called Sekt. The United States is a significant producer of sparkling wine with producers in numerous states. Recently the United Kingdom, which produced some of the earliest examples of sparkling wine, has started producing sparkling wines again.

The Romans were the first to plant vineyards in this area of northeast France with the region being cultivated by at least the 5th century, possibly earlier. Wines from the Champagne region were known before medieval times. Churches owned vineyards and monks produced wine for use in the sacrament of Eucharist. French kings were traditionally anointed in Reims and Champagne wine was served as part of coronation festivities. The Champenois were envious of the reputation of the wines made by their Burgundian neighbours to the south and sought to produce wines of equal acclaim. However, the northerly climate of the region gave the Champenois a unique set of challenges in making red wine. At the far extremes of sustainable viticulture, the grapes would struggle to ripen fully and often would have bracing levels of acidity and low sugar levels. The wines would be lighter bodied and thinner than the Burgundy wines they were seeking to outdo.

Contrary to legend and popular belief, Dom Perignon did not invent sparkling wine. The oldest recorded sparkling wine is Blanquette de Limoux, which was apparently invented by Benedictine Monks in the Abbey of Saint Hilaire near Carcassonne in 1531. Over a century later, the English scientist and physician Christopher Merret documented the addition of sugar to a finished wine to create a second fermentation six years before Dom Perignon set foot in the Abbey of Hautvillers and almost 40 years before it was claimed that the famed Benedictine monk invented Champagne. Merret presented the Royal Society with a paper in which he detailed what is now called méthode champenoise in 1662.

Although Dom Perignon did not invent Champagne, he did develop many advances in production of the drink, including holding the cork in place with a wire collar (muselet) to withstand the fermentation pressure. In France, the first sparkling Champagne was created accidentally; its pressure led it to be called “the devil’s wine” (le vin du diable) as bottles exploded or the cork jolted away.

Champagne first gained world renown because of its association with the anointment of French kings. Royalty from throughout Europe spread the message of the unique sparkling wine from Champagne and its association with luxury and power in the 17th, 18th and 19th century. The leading manufacturers devoted considerable energy to creating a history and identity for their wine, associating it and themselves with nobility and royalty. Through advertising and packaging they sought to associate Champagne with high luxury, festivities, and rites of passage. Their efforts coincided with the emergence of a middle class that was looking for ways to spend its money on symbols of upward mobility.

(Visit Wikipedia for the complete original article on Champagne.)