matouenpeluche

QEII: Diamond Jubilee

It's the Queen's Diamond Jubilee this month. Diamond Jubilee! What a terrific anniversary that is. I hope to have a Diamond Jubilee something someday just so I can say "Diamond Jubilee" non-stop for a few months.  In celebration of this great sounding anniversary, The National Portrait Gallery in London is holding an exhibition of...ahem...portraits that have been commissioned for her over the years. Behold a selection of a few of these...Which is your favourite?

Images from a postcard book I have from The National Portrait Gallery.

Roy Lichtenstein at the Tate

Something I'd be very keen to see! The Tate gallery in London has just announced that it will be holding a huge retrospective exhibition of Roy Lichtenstein's work early next year. Some of his most famous paintings will be part of the show such as Whaam! and Drowning Girl. I can't imagine how lovely it would be to be surrounded by a room full of Lichtensteins!

Ten Great Years

I thought this poster by Argentinian graphic designer Max Dalton was pretty neat. You can see more of Max's work and posters here --> Max Dalton.

In other Beatles news, I see that Yellow Submarine has been cleaned up and restored. Ah! I have such fond memories of that fine film! When it was having a re-run at the Roseville cinema, my Dad used to take me to see it most weekends. It was a very enjoyable way to fill in a few hours together. The music's fantastic and the fab animation certainly appealed to a me as a small girl. You can see the trailer here.

Poster image from here. Yellow Submarine from here.

Epic Mermaid Saga part XVII

Here is the latest installment in the ever increasing mermaid saga.

It is Galatea having a mid-morning tea break with Phil (crab) and Herbert and Bertha (jellyfish) and Sid and Simon (starfish). As you can see, Sid and Simon have had way too much red cordial and are totally rocking out to the piped muzak in the cafe they're in. It's a bit of a worry.  Meanwhile, Galatea tries to ignore her embarrassing friends by talking to Herbert and Bertha who are in a much more sedate state. They're discussing sea currents and when to expect the next king tide. Lastly, Phil is lost in his own crabby world. He's trying to figure out how to put the straw into his mouth/ mandible/ eating appendage thingy.

...and it's Friday! Well almost.

The Total Look

Peggy Moffitt (model and muse) + William Claxton (husband and photographer) + Rudi Gernreich (designer) = The Total Look exhibition at MOCA in LA. How beautiful are these photos?

All images from here.

Easter break.

A drawing I've spent a large part of today working on. I Can't Believe You Didn't Know. It's one of those titles in which the viewer can join the dots!

Other than that, I've been having a super low key Easter long weekend. This has been good! Time to reflect and settle the mind down a bit! Have been going for autumnal walks through pretty Sydney gum forests, reading novels and the paper. I have also been re-watching season four of Mad Men. Season four has been my favourite so far, but am very excited and can't wait for season five to hit us down here in Aus!

Happy Easter all!

This is Dean

Dean

This is Dean the superb blue wren. He's a real live wire. He is looking out towards the horizon for his next adventure. Incredibly charismatic, Dean is loved by many and is the secret hero of a famous poem a friend of his wrote several years ago. He doesn't have an occupation to my knowledge, but seems to exist in order to entertain, bemuse and enchant his compadres who appreciate and love him very much.   

Masked (penguin) Ball and other scenarios

So this is a drawing I did a few weeks ago: Masked (Penguin) Ball. I haven't really got much to say about this print as I think it speaks for itself.

However, I have been thinking about the sort of masked ball or fancy dress party I would like to go to and I have decided on these two themes:

1) A James Bond fancy dress party.

Can you imagine? Fine, fine John Barry/ Shirley Bassey e.t.c. music playing all night long and heaps of opportunities to be over the top silly. All. Night. Non. Stop! I suppose everyone would either come as Blofeld or James himself circa Sean Connery. I'd like to think someone would have the chutzpah to come as Jaws (Moonraker) or Christopher Walken (A View to a Kill). I wouldn't mind going as Solitaire in Live and Let Die (v.snazzy long haired Jane Seymour in '70s New Orleans/ New York Bond). I quite like Tiffany Case in Diamonds are Forever (favourite all time Bond film my friends - give it a watch - it is magic!). Then again, I think I'd like to come as Sean circa You Only Live Twice as in wet suit clad and arriving in a toy helicopter thingy. Or perhaps I'd come as Odd Job (Goldfinger baddy). Although, I wouldn't mind actually being Goldfinger, come to think of it, as I could go around all night saying "Goodbye Mr. Bond" in my best heavily accented German/ English. I'm just rambling now...pardon.

2) *Ahem* The other party I was thinking of would be a Beatles party and you'd have to dress as your favourite era of Beatle.

I think I'd come as John Lennon circa Hamburg with a quiff and a leather jacket and smoking a rolled up cigarette or perhaps a white suited Lennon with long hair and a middle part à la Abbey Road (favourite album after all). Then again, would it be permissible to come as George Martin? Hmmm...that's possibly a bit tricky...

 

Helen Dardik!

Helen Dardik - Canadian artist extraordinaire! Her work makes me feel so darn happy, it's ridiculous! She has an Etsy shop here.  Happy Thursday!

All images from here.

Breakfast of Champions and The Sirens of Titan

Breakfast of Champions

This is something I drew this weekend. It's a party of nine having a breakfast of champions. I named this drawing that because, well...it looked like they were tucking into something good, and also because I have recently finished the Kurt Vonnegut novel of the same name.

At the risk of having every hard core Kurt Vonnegut fan on the internet bearing down upon my humble blog with righteous indignation, I've got to say that I didn't really enjoy it all that much. I am a Kurt Vonnegut fan though, so I was a little disappointed. The book is sort of biblically written in little chapters and verses that never really met (for me) and there was none of the magical wackiness and bizarre surrealism of my favourites of his like Slaughterhouse Five and The Sirens of Titan. For the record, Vonnegut himself graded Breakfast of Champions as a C, Slaughterhouse Five an A+ and The Sirens of Titan as an A.

Speaking of which, have you read The Sirens of Titan? You really ought to if you like having your mind rearranged by simple prose. It is so, so incredibly wild! It is sci-fi, humour, terror, Greek tragedy and thriller all rolled into one. Some people say it falls short of his best and others say it is his best. I say the latter. Hmmm...I may have to re-read it sometime soon!