L'apres-midi d'un Foehn-Version 1

I brought my daughter to see this show by Compagnie Non Nova.

To say it's one of the best things I've ever seen is no exaggeration.  It's an exquisite production and the video can't really do it justice.  It was like being transported back to the very best part of your childhood for twenty five minutes.  A little slice of heaven served up courtesy of dancing plastic bags.  Well who'd a thunk it?

Anime | THE SIMPSONS | ANIMATION on FOX

This is a bit good, isn't it?
I love Patty and Selma's Delivery Service.

See Wes Anderson's 'The Grand Budapest Hotel' Come Alive in Charming Holiday Card | Filmmakers, Film Industry, Film Festivals, Awards & Movie Reviews | Indiewire

See Wes Anderson's 'The Grand Budapest Hotel' Come Alive in Charming Holiday Card | Filmmakers, Film Industry, Film Festivals, Awards & Movie Reviews | Indiewire

Doesn't the hotel look edible?  Very Battenburg cake.
I'd love to hang this on my kitchen wall exactly as it is above...like a snazzier version of those sad-eyed Jesus pictures, the ones where the Sacred Heart would be revealed beneath his snow white robes depending on where you were standing.  Now you see it, now you don't sort of thing.
I could, I suppose, attach my computer to the wall.  Press play - problem solved.  But that doesn't seem appropriate somehow.  Don't you feel you ought to be watching any Wes Anderson film on a zoetrope while the audio track rattles out from an old record player?  So the computer on the wall wouldn't be right.  I need a solution that's lo-fi yet needlessly complicated.

Happy Christmas to all in case I don't blog again before the big day.   

The Wes Anderson Collection Book Trailer

Detail obsessed fetishists will dig this book, you say?  Detail obsessed fetishist is my middle name......

Hannibal: Mad About the Boy!

http://mostlyfilm.com/2013/08/26/hannibal-redux/

Mostly Film asked me to provide an illustration for an article about Bryan Fuller's latest tv show Hannibal and I was delighted to do because this is one of my favourite tv shows, apart from Sarah and Duck on Cbeebies (I am a mum, after all, and it is delightful...)
Hannibal is a massively stylish offering; mean, moody and magnificent.  I like the twisted fairytale aspect to it; time seems out of joint when you enter Hannibal's domain and the man himself, as played by Mads Mikkelsen, seems to belong to a different era.  Yes, he's a serial killer, but he's also an old fashioned gentleman...in his way... He'd probably be the perfect house guest, provided you didn't do anything foolish like attempting to serve the cheese course too early or make him listen to your endless theorizing as to how you know you would have been absolutely bezzy mates with Michael Jackson.. He's a dandy in the vein of the Duke of Windsor (the one who married Wallace Simpson - worth googling his plaid suits, all the better if you get a full colour image - all the better to wonder at the technicolour glory of his baggy pants) and this guy knows how to rock a double windsor knot like nobody's business.
I think you have to be born a dandy -forget makeover shows; some things you just don't get from book learning - so my young Hannibal is a nattily dressed child with a keen eye for mixing pattern and colour and mother's cooking simply isn't up to scratch.
What's a boy to do?

Here's a musical offering sung by the dark haired lady from Abba, penned by Noel Coward, which might sum up the general audience reaction to this show:

Elephant Seal Emerges Victorious and Some Gratuitous Flight of the Conchords

Heres's a new illustration.  I saw this guy in a newspaper - best wildlife photos of the week sort of thing.  Even though I don't generally go in for drawing animals this one really caught my eye.

And now here's the Conchords - Steve's been telling everyone one of them is actually a large water dwelling mammal.... (I reckon the elephant seal would dig the rhymes of the Hiphopopotamus).

Goodnight My Love

My great aunt Kitty was a life long fan of Shirley Temple.  She died last weekend and her grand daughter sang this at her funeral today.  Here it is again for Kitty.  I hope there's a cinema in heaven that only shows Shirley's films and I hope Kitty has the best seat in the house. xxx

Happy 165th Birthday Bram Stoker!

Today is Bram Stoker's birthday.  This Google doodle is a nice birthday present, don't you think?

By the way, I've chosen the dancing bears "Exit Stage Left" as the raffle prize for the Cuidiu Fair this weekend.  I've added some colour to it so it's a little different to this one, but you get the idea.

Cuidiu Craft Fair

http://www.cuidiudsw.ie/craft-fair-2012/

I'll be taking part in this fair this weekend.  One of my prints will be a raffle prize (if I can decide which one that should be...)  There will be lots of gorgeous things to see and buy, so check it out if you're in the area on the day.  Could be a good chance to get a jump on the Christmas shopping.

So far my choice for the print to raffle is between these....

and various others I haven't scanned yet!
Any suggestions would be welcomed....

Exhibition "A Line Less Ordinary"

I'm currently having an exhibition of some of my illustration work over the last few years.  The opening is taking place tomorrow night between 7-9 in 15, North Frederick Street, Dublin 1.  There will be wine, two authors will read excerpts from their works and my pictures, of course!  On sale at very reasonable prices, if I may say so....Allow me to extend an invitation to you, dear reader...if you find yourself in the vicinity consider yourself invited..mention my blog at the door and you might get a 5% discount (as I've already pointed out my work is very reasonably priced!)

Phizzfest

I'm taking part in Phizzfest at the moment. I'm having an exhibition in a local beauty spot known as the Basin. This park has a real Secret Garden quality to it. I had this idea a long while back and suggested it as part of a group exhibition but that idea never went anywhere so now I'm getting to do it myself as a series of illustrations and installations based on popular fairytales and what they might be like if they took place in the Basin....

http://www.phizzfest.ie/2012/
(here's the link to the festival if you want to have a look-see)

Here's a look:

Thumbelina:
She looks surprised to have woken up in a flower.  Let's hope the rain holds off...

Puss in Boots:

He's fishing for his dinner, but no luck so far...

Hansel from Hansel and Gretel. 

The gardener's cottage reminds me of the Gingerbread House. 

Hansel has found himself in a cage made from candycanes...

The Ugly Duckling

Someone released a turtle in the Basin. 

We haven't seen too many ducklings this year (thanks to the herring gulls).

Maybe the turtle will become part of a blended family...

Little Red Riding Hood:

Which one does the wolf want for dinner tonight?

My photos are not the best quality, but they give an idea.  I worked with pen and ink, watercolours and collage.  Then I had the illustrations scanned and printed and laminated - because they're going to be outdoors for a week or two.  The installations of Thumbelina and Puss in Boots are wood block and the  figures are made from reinforced card and have been varnished.  Response has been positive since they went in yesterday.  I'll put scans of the originals up soon.

Watching too much Bette Davis...

This could be me, if I somehow morphed with Bette Davis and developed a really bad attitude..Mean and ornery..I'm not there yet, but that's not to say it isn't a temptation from time to time... More of the Wicked Stepmother and less of Glinda the Good Witch... I haven't been posting much lately because there simply hasn't been time... but hopefully it'll be business as usual in the near future. I'll be posting photos of work I've done for a local festival and there's some other stuff in the pipeline

Flight of the Conchords Ep 7 'Albi the Racist Dragon'

Oh, Albi, when will you ever learn.  Oh, you did, just there at the end.  Well, Bret and Jemaine aren't the only ones who are crying now.....

"Illustration (The Finest Occupation)" Animation from Studiocanoe

http://vimeo.com/46137656

The above link leads to a wonderful little piece by Studiocanoe.

W. Heath Robinson: Crazy Contraptions & Lavish Illustrations

This is an Abe Books introduction to the art of W. Heath Robinson.  I have a collection of Hans Christian Anderson stories which he illustrated and his work is incredibly beautiful.  I have a special fondness for his black and white work.  Check him out - a google images search will provide plenty for you to admire.

W. Heath Robinson: Crazy Contraptions & Lavish Illustrations

This is an Abe Books introduction to the art of W. Heath Robinson.  I have a collection of Hans Christian Anderson stories which he illustrated and his work is incredibly beautiful.  I have a special fondness for his black and white work.  Check him out - a google images search will provide plenty for you to admire.

Laurel and Hardy Way Out West Dance Flash Mob

This is a flash mob carried out by Tilda Swinton and Mark Cousins on behalf of the 8 and a Half Foundation - which I think also involved a mobile cinema travelling around rural areas to stage mini film festivals.  I would have loved to be part of this flash mob....



And this is Laurel and Hardy showing us how it's done....

Angela Carter Illustration Competition

There was an illustration competition this year to create pieces based on Angela Carter's collection of short stories in The Bloody Chamber.

I love this book of short stories.

I was in high school when I read it and I was inspired to create a piece for my end of year art project. It was a book which one person held open while someone else took the ribbon at the end of page and walked backwards - it was one long piece of paper folded many times, so the story unfurled and the illustrations revealed a condensed version of the story The Company of Wolves.

This is the link showing the winning illustration entries (there are some very nice pieces here):

http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/gallery/2012/jun/12/book-illustration-competition-angela-carter-gallery

Charity Shop Book Shopping and Sesame Street: News Flash - Old Woman Who Lived in the Shoe

So my I cannot resist going into charity shops with my four year old.  Sometimes you find real gems - especially in the book sections.  This was our most recent haul, setting me back all of two euros!

Forgive my terrible photograph, but this is My Naughty Little Sister, by Dorothy Edwards.  I had heard of this series of books, but didn't read them myself until now.  My four year old loves them and so do I.  The stories are well written, witty - something for the parents and the child to laugh about, which is always good - and the stories sound authentic to the child, getting up to mischief, tantrums, etc.  These stories are more than 50 years old but age has not withered them...

This is part of the Frog and Toad series by Arnold Lobel.  A lot of his stories were illustrated by Maurice Sendak.  Haven't started in on these yet, but his previous stories are great - amiable nonsense about an owl who thinks the moon is following him, who feels sorry for the cold winter and opens his front door to let it in to warm itself by the fire (he lives to regret this decision...)

Another series by Arnold Lobel.  

The Dolls' House by Rumer Godden.  Written in the 1940's it tells the tale of a family of dolls who long to move out of their shoe box and into a proper doll's house.  Their dreams come true but then Marchpane arrives - a beautiful, but cruel, doll who plans on taking over the dream house...! We read the first chapter of this at bedtime tonight - so far so good!

The Little Girl and the Tiny Doll, by Edward and Aingelda Ardizzone.  We already have this in an anthology of childrens stories.  It's about a tiny doll abandoned in a shop freezer and the adventures she has there (stacks of frozen food are like skyscrapers to her) until she is finally rescued by a little girl.  It's one of our favourites. 

Mo Willems reads We Are in a Book!

This is a piece about Mo Willems 2010 "We Are In A Book". 

Mo Willems is great, as anyone who's read his Pigeon Series or Knuffle Bunny stories will testify. 

He also works on Sesame Street so that would make him all right in my book anyway.

http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/books/2012/03/mo_willems_meditation_on_death_.html