matouenpeluche

Charles Aznavour and Astral Rabbit.

 

 

This is my cat Charles Aznavour (not Charles Aznavour the French singer). These little quirky, fuzzy polaroid photos were another treasure I found when cleaning up for the big move.

Charles Aznavour, or Charlie to his friends, was a delightfully playful main coon cat I had when I was a teenager. He was HUGE! But he had a chiruppy meow and the sweetest personality of any pussy cat I've ever had the honour of knowing. His most marked characteristics were his bright eyes and quick paw. He had the fastest paw in the west - you literally couldn't see him move it. He would have been a fantastic mouser on a farm somewhere in a past life I think.

Below is another of those mini polaroid shots (I have no idea where Mum got this camera or what's happened to it now) of a rabbit I had called Astral. He was given to me by a flatmate in my early 20s when I was obsessively drawing cartoons about a space travelling rabbit called - you guessed it - Astral. It's a bit abstract this one but it actually captures the determination and rabbityness of young Astral on the move. He's in his cage here but fear not rabbit lovers! He had a large back yard all to himself to hop around in.

Thank you to everyone for your super sweet comments regarding my work and posts - it warms the cockles of my heart truly!

Mice!

Another wild and woolly Sydney weekend has come to a close. *sigh* It was two days of up and down weather which finally culminated in a torrential down pour yesterday evening. Still we managed to get a walk in yesterday and I drew a new drawing of a new animal I haven't as yet explored! Mice! The top mouse here is called "A little love". He is now available in my shop!

And...My work was mentioned in two terrific blogs this weekend: Tracy and Jess included my drawings in their posts on Sunday. Thanks so much guys!

Hope everyone is having/ had a lovely relaxed and refreshing weekend!

Born to Blog?

I think you know you were born to blog if you take your camera out to the corner store when getting a carton of milk, you know, just in case you see something utterly blog worthy.

Happy Saturday everyone!

Happy Friday!

Happy Friday folks!

Yesterday, I found my equivalent of the website holy grail. I shouldn't say that actually because maybe everyone's known about this site forever! Anyway, for those of you who don't: Conde Nast Store (pardon the lack of an acute over that last "e"!). Wow wee! Talk about heaven! Practically all of the most classic fashion illustrations and photographs from the 20th Century in the one spot! I think I'll be doing some serious browsing there a couple of weeks before my birthday!

 

 

Meanwhile...

We interrupt this programme with a shameless plug from the sponsor's shop...

I'm having a Winter Solstice 3 for 2 sale in my shop! If you buy any two prints of the same size you can have another print (the same size) for free!

You can find my shop here! 

Flying Kitten!

Flying Kitten. What more can I say? He's here in my shop!

...and Emma Lamb and her "wee man" the debonaire Spanner have blogged about my work here! Well, maybe Spanner didn't actually blog about me but perhaps he held Emma's hand in his paw while she blogged. I'd like to think so anyway!

Happy Tuesday folks!

An award and some loveliness.

Happy Monday everyone! What better way to start the week than by being given an award and by passing it on! Gabbi, that high priestess of all things blog, has given me a "You are a Great Read" award! Merci Beaucoup mon amie! I'd like to give it back to you and then pass it on to the following fine bloggers: Jess, Tracy, Lilly, Susann, Kate, Trudi, Linda, Tina, Brinja and Christiana! By the way, Gabbi herself has a sublime post at the moment about all things bookish that really is the bee's knees - it is epic and lovely at the same time - I think it really is a must see!

...and to welcome the new week, here are some charming advertisements circa early last century I found on my travels over the weekend...

The Interloper...

I think if a person has drawn three of something then it is officially a series! So, here is the latest in my mermaid series! This one is called "The Interloper". As my boyfriend quite rightly points out, a seahorse of that size would startle anyone, even a person...sorry mermaid as familiar with underwater sea creatures as Jemima. She is available in all her startled loveliness here in my shop! 

Speaking of seahorses, they are rather lovely and unique, aren't they? Here are a few ineteresting facts you may or may not have known about these sweeties of the sea:

1. Unlike most fish, they mate for life.
2. The male bears the unborn young.
3. They can range in size from 0.6 inches (1.5 centimeters) to 14 inches (35 centimeters) long.
4. Males have a brood pouch on their front where the female deposits her eggs and the male carries them around until they hatch.
5. The small fin on their back flutters around 35 times per second and this propells them through the water.
6. Due to their unusual upright way of swimming they can tire easily and can die of exhaustion in rough seas.
7. Their tails are prehensile and they grasp things with it to anchor themselves.
8. They are phenominal eaters and have been known to eat up to 3000 shrimp a day.
9. There are 35 species of seahorse.
10. Seahorses have no teeth and swallow their food whole.

So! There you have it! Ten seahorse facts you might like to dazzle someone with some day!

Underwater Boudoir.

 
Jemima, Nigella and Harry getting ready in the morning. Did you know that the word "boudoir" comes from the French word "bouder" which means "to pout"? So a boudoir is literally a "pouting room"! This charming tableaux is now in my shop! You can find it here! I drew it as a companion piece to an earlier drawing I did called Jemima takes Harry for a walk.

Meanwhile, Sydney is having another one of its waterfall days. It's just like...well, being under a heavy waterfall. Now that I'm living on the ground floor, it really feels like being underwater almost. Still, I'm not complaining. It means I can stay inside all day and draw and feel perfectly justified because of the weather rather than saying to myself I'm a drawing hermit!

I trust everyone is having a restful and relaxing weekend!

Confessions of a tragic postcard collector.

One of the joys (one itsy bitsy small one granted!) of moving is unearthing lost treasures and secret stashes of long forgotten mementos of a former life. In my 20s, when I was living in crazy share houses with cerebral and feisty girls, one of the first things I ever did when I moved in was immediately put up my postcard collection. This would take several days because I had hundreds of postcards from all over. I didn't really think too hard about what postcards to put next to each other, I just put them up. They seemed to look instantly good in my eyes. I had sets too: movie stars from the 50s, musicians, art, animals, black and white, colour. Here are a few of my cat postcards....

...and Trudi of glamorous blog The Deco Detective has done a gorgeous post about my drawings! I'm totally honoured Trudi thank you!