matouenpeluche

What I've been up to...

Apart from drawing, I've been having a fine old time in Sydney town of late. Last Friday I went for a glorious walk (as previously mentioned in Shadow Shot Sunday) around the foreshore. This is a shot of one of the five or so charming islands that sit in Sydney harbour. This one is Shark Island. You can see the city behind it.Here's another (less romantic!) view of it:

Below is Strickland house. I was more or less standing in front of this historic and famous building when I took the photos of the island. Did you see Australia with Hugh Jackman and Nicole Kidman? Well, this is the house in the beginning of the film that everyone is running in and out of!

Apart from going for walks I've been reading. As readers of this blog might recall, I am head over heels about Mad Men. I remember watching it and the big big boss said he was reading this book:

So, being a good Mad Men follower I picked it up the other day when I saw it in my local book store. So far it's proving to be quite the ripping yarn! At 1168 pages long I think it will be keeping me entertained for a couple of days to come. I have been reading quite a bit of it recently because my internet service has been appalling of late and when it goes down I have been dipping into old Atlas Shrugged to fill in the boring bits! Thank you Ayn Rand for preserving my sanity!

Lastly, I'm not sure if anyone recalls seeing this series or not. I certainly didn't watch the first run of it on telly (1969 - 1970) but I adored watching re-runs of it in the 90s.

(Image from Manny the Movie Guy)

Be still my beating heart! UFO! A while back my boyfriend saw my eyes light up like pinball machines when we chanced upon the 26 episode box set of this piece of fantastic retro goodness in a favourite record store. He hadn't actually seen it but my "oohS" and "AHHHHs" were a good enough selling point for him!

It's a series set in 1980(wow!) about UFOs (obviously!) and a secret organisation called S.H.A.D.O = Supreme Headquarters Alien Defence Organisation. This organisation lead by Commander Ed Straker, seen here on the left, has the mission of protecting earth from organ harvesting aliens that are hell bent on - well, abducting humans...to...harvest their ...organs. It's pure GOLD!!! I read that they are even going to make a movie of it quite soon as Paramont have bought the rights and it will instead be set in 2020!

One of the best bits is of course the moon base and these ravishing gals in purple wigs that run it. Gosh! Below is the very cute Lt. Gay Ellis (Gabrielle Drake) and there she is again with one of her "men". I can't tell you how on the money and capable this woman is!

Finally I'll leave you with a link for the opening credits of this glorious show. I drive my boyfriend to distraction by whistling, humming and la, la, la-ing this theme tune at inappropriate times of the day. He's very good natured and puts up with it!

Here's the LINK!

 (Image of Ed Straker from Den of Geek, Lt. Ellis and the two gals from Original Rocket Dungeon.)

Happy happy joy joy - it's Thursday!!

P.S. Thank you everyone for all the Jeremy love!

Constance, Spring Flowers and Couture Carrie!

Here are the two commissioned drawings I did over the weekend! The wonderful Couture Carrie is doing a post today on "Mad Men" inspired high fashion and asked me if I'd like to draw a picture or two for her post! Would I ever!!

The top one is "Constance from the typing pool" a sort of a Peggy type creature and the other is called "Spring Flowers" and is inspired by Betty Draper et al and their amazingly full skirts. She has the best waspy waist that woman!

Be sure to head on over for CC's magnificent post - she really puts on a sumptuous fashion banquet! Thank you CC!

P.S. Both of these drawings are now available in my shop as prints!

Season 2: Episode 8....

OK, so I have absolutely no one in the entire "real" world that watches the magnificent "Mad Men" to talk to and I'm bursting with the excitement of it all. Fellow bloggers you are my only outlet for "Mad Men" hysteria. Please humour me won't you?

First of all:

What in the world is the glorious Joan Holloway doing with this Mr. Nothing? I'm sorry - I'm up to episode 8 and so far he has totally underwhelmed me with his pedestrian nature. *sigh* Joan - you could do so much better you outrageous doll you!

Second of all:

Why Don? OK, I admit Betty can be a little unimaginative and ordinary at times but really Don - this woman is totally unsuitable. She's an in yer face brassy hussy and I much preferred that nice dark haired woman from season one. To find myself cheering when Jimmy told Don he was disgusting was quite a shock for me.

Third of all:

Far be it from me Don, but I think you went too far here with Betty.

Hmmmm...this was interesting...what was going on here exactly?? Hmmmmm?

Oh Father give it up! Has Father Gill got the hots for our Peggy or what?

I definitely think this wench has aspirations above her station so to speak...I could be wrong but I think something may happen here between Roge and Jane...

Thank you gentle bloggers for letting me chat about what I've seen so far - I feel much better - may you all have a fantastic week ahead.

P.S. Thank you all so much for your gorgeous name suggestions for unnamed competition gal!! The judges are scratching their heads as we speak and using a very large computer to try and work out the bestest of them all!

Happy Saturday!

 
I'm having a quiet day today inside drawing and resisting the urge to watch more divine Mad Men! I watched two and a half episodes last night and I'm being very good and saving the rest on disc one for tonight. I've actually been working on a commission from a certain wonderful blogger - all will be revealed next week!

Mad Men season 2 is everything I remember from season one but even better! I just fall in love with the entire everything about the show when I watch it - it's so beautifully filmed and the costumes are superb and the characters...e.t.c. e.t.c.!!

So, here I have some painterly Vogue covers all from the '30s. For some reason I thought the exacting art deco line was still in vogue (sorry!) then but it was left behind in the '20s and this delightful feathery style came in. Enjoy! P.S. Don't forget to enter my competition!











All these images can be found here!

Mad about Mad Men

Something happened to me last week - I fell into the vortex that is Mad Men, that sublime poem to mid twentieth century New York advertising executives and the world they inhabit. However, it was far from a "love at first sight" affair, oh no it was a real slow burner!

I first became aware of Mad Men early last year. Vanity Fair magazine was swooning all over the show but because I hadn't seen it and was unlikely to for several years (! We get stuff quite a bit later here) I just skipped over the articles. Then several more articles appeared and there were write ups in Sydney papers going into great depth about the philosophy and costumes and period detail and ....! It seemed there was plenty to like.

So, I bit the bullet and rented out the first couple of episodes and got about half way through the first episode with my boyfriend. I felt like I was reading a zen buddhist Koan! It was sooo slow and quiet and so what if everyone was wearing twin sets and smart suits with skinny ties!

Then a local TV station showed a fascinating documentary on the original Mad Man: David Ogilvy "The Father of Advertising" and followed it up by showing the first season of Mad Men. Hmmmm...I thought, maybe I should give the show another go. I rented out the first season again and that was it: totally and utterly hooked! The clothes! The wonderful calm paced drama! The historical back drop! The sets! Strong and silent Donald Draper! The luxurious feeling as if you're in a time machine! Joan Holloway's magnificent sassyness! Ghastly Pete Campbell! I could go on and on... and now tragedy of tragedies,: my video shop doesn't have the second season yet. So I just have to sit here and pine away like a schoolgirl with a crush until it is finally released here. Sigh!

Happy Friday folks!

This is Nancy. She's impossibly vivacious and lovely and as you can imagine the belle of any ball! I named her Nancy in honour of Nancy Mitford the English author of "Love in a Cold Climate". "Love.." is a real ripping yarn with plenty of dry humour and scandalous behaviour and it's a great read. It was actually made into a BBC mini-series (about 8 episodes long I think) in the '70s which I watched with my parents. Recently, though, it has been re-done into a 3 hour or so made for TV movie. This later one I watched recently and I can't recommend it enough! It really is fun! It has a great ensemble cast, the sets are gorgeous and it's set in my favourite period: the '20s and 30s.

Nancy was one of "The Bright Young Things" in London between the wars and I think some of "Love.." is quite autobiographical. Actually, I think I'll stop there discussing Nancy because she really deserves a post all to herself! (Hmmmm...now there's a thought!) Here you can see the cover of the first edition of her most famous novel.

As for the young thing above, I have her now in all her girly green eyed loveliness in my shop here!

Happy Friday everyone!