matouenpeluche

Princess Margaret

Glamorous Princess Margaret was a great beauty in her youth and was famously fond of hanging out with artists, musicians, actors and other cultural types. However, did you know that in 1953 she directed a West End play called The Frog? You can read more about this incident here in an article published in The Sydney Morning Herald newspaper on Thursday, the 3rd of June 1954. I particularly liked this quote from the article: "... the mink and diamond audience applauded tumultuously". 

Images from The Apartment, Motilo and The Daily Mail.

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.

London

All the hyper reportage about Kate and Wills has brought about a serious case of London-itis in me. I'm not one of those people that are mad about the royals (although I wish them both all the happiness in the world) but rather mad about London! I've been there three times and it's always been an absolutely awesome adventure.

The first time I went, I was lucky enough to go as a young girl with my parents. I was a wide eyed, Doc Martin wearing, dreadlocked rebel and I made a bee line for The King's Road. The second time I went was after uni and it was for several months. I went by myself and met some terrific fellow lone adventurers from every corner of the globe. I remember being lucky enough to see a three hour Carlos Santana concert at Wembley Stadium which totally blew my socks off. The third time I went, I went with my Dad and we had a rollicking good time and explored what felt like every nook and cranny of that big beautiful city. *sigh* Well I feel that wonderful city is due another visit!

This is London Circa 1966 courtesy of my treasure trove of National Geograghics. 

A rainy night in Piccadilly Circus with an insert of some Rockers ("a teen-age motorcycle set"). Left: The Birmingham Symphony Orchestra plays for an audience at London's Kenwood Lakeside.

London Zoo's elephants in Regent's Park and launching yachts in Kensington Gardens Round Pool.

Seated on a shooting stick rather than doing a complicated dance move, a visitor views paintings at the Royal Academy. A World War I veteran and a young family looking at modern sculpture at the Tate Gallery.

Piccadilly Circus with the statue that everyone thinks of as Eros, the winged Greek god of love but which is actually the Angel of Christian Charity. It's a pretty fantastic photo that one actually. I wouldn't mind it as a poster!

Happy Thursday too by the way - it's down hill all the way from here folks! :0)

Happy Halloween and congratulations Christopher Lee!

(Images from here)

So, Happy Halloween! Even though we are not huge Halloween people us Australians I have been noticing the celebration getting more popular here every year. And I totally approve! It's a heap of fun and a great excuse to dress up and have a party! We had some interesting characters at school yesterday: Spider man, the devil, and a fairy - but my favourite was a very pretty lady bug.

While surfing the web this morning I saw that the beloved Hammer house of horror Meister himself Christopher Lee (seen above as Dracula) was knighted yesterday. Keith of Coolness is Timeless has a terrific post about him here if you'd like to read more. 

I have also been thoroughly enjoying my Art Nouveau birthday book. Here are some more paintings by artist Fernand Khnopff which I thought were a little on the eerie side and perfect for Halloween today...The painting above is The sphinx or Caresses (1896) and the one below is I lock my door upon myself (1891).

Happy weekend all you lovely people out there!!

Bonjour Le Weekend!

YIPPEEE! It's the weekend!!...and this is how I feel - particularly as I have a whole two weeks off!!! Can you believe it? I can pretend I'm a bohemian artist for two (count 'em) whole weeks!!

*Ahem*

O.K. now that I have got that out of my system I'd like to introduce you to my new favourite photographer: Philippe Halsman (1906 - 1976). Halsman, the Latvian born American portrait photographer, is probably one of the most famous photographers of his generation. He was not only responsible for taking iconic photos of anybody who was anybody but was also responsible for the "Jump Book".

 

Halsman said at the time, "When you ask a person to jump, his attention is mostly directed toward the act of jumping and the mask falls so that the real person appears." Halsman even created his own philosophy of jump photography, called "jumpology". He published his iconic book in 1959 and it had up to 178 photos of everyone from Oppenheimer to Marilyn to Nixon to The Duke and Duchess of Windsor in full flight.



I am a big fan of his other photos too some of which you have probably seen before. These two of Salvador Dali are very nice I think.





Images from top are: Philippe Halsman and Monroe, Bridget Bardot, The Duke and Duchess of Windsor, Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis, Salvador Dali and skull, Savador Dali and Rhino. All Photos are by Philippe Halsman and you can find them in Google images. You can also read more about Halsman here - he had quite an extraordinary life!!

Have a super duper weekend all you glorious bloggers out there!!

and

don't forget the GIVEAWAY of my work at Gabbi's and Jess' blogs!!

The Queen's Sister.

Another thing I did on the weekend was watch a BBC adapted for television film  called "The Queen's Sister" about Margaret Rose, the Queen of England's late sister. I'm a bit of a sucker for gossipy bio-pics. The drawing to the left, which is now in my shop as a small print, was inspired by the Queen's sister and is called Margaret.

Margaret in her prime was a real beauty with an 18-inch waist and sparkling blue eyes.

She was madly in love with Peter Townsend, the king's equerry (a kind of personal attendant to the King)when she was barely out of her teens but when he proposed, Parliament and the church said "No" because he was a divorced man. Eventually, after several dalliances, she married high society photographer Antony Armstrong-Jones. Here they are at their wedding in 1960.

 

Antony Armstrong-Jones was made Lord Snowdon and Margaret became Princess Margaret, Countess Snowdon. Antony introduced her to the groovy people of London's social scene people like Mick Jagger, Peter Sellers, Rudolf Nureyev e.t.c. Here's a rather fetching photo her husband took of her in the bath.

They divorced in 1978 and Margaret's health deteriorated after a lifetime of heavy smoking and too many late nights out partying. She died in 2002.

I thought this bio-pic would be fun and racy and capture a bit of the swinging sixties but it was a bit flat and tedious and ultimately a disappointment. It didn't paint a very good portrait of Margaret at all and I think you need to make your main character at least a little endearing in order for the viewer to identify with them. The Margaret in this film was an utter boozy bore who destroyed every party she attended with her insistence upon singing and staggering around like a drunkard. You were cheering for Antony's team which is not right because he, I've read, was not the most pleasant of character's either.

Anyway, I don't care how bad it was because my boyfriend brought home season two of MAD MEN last night YIPPPEEE!!! I'm saving it for the weekend!! 

Happy hump day everyone!!