A bit of a mish mash...

I am SOOO excited about tonight's premiere of 'Desperate Romantics' on BBC2! I seriously can't wait! I have been a HUGE Pre-Raphaelite fan ever since I was little and have always wanted to see some kind of drama about these sexy dreamy artists from the Victorian era! The programme is being dubbed as sex drugs and paints, and focuses on the three main members of the PRB group all of who had pretty unconventional love lives including prostitutes, other men's wives and one very outrageous exhumation of a beloved wife! I love their work and my favourite artist from the movement is Dante Gabriel Rossetti! I love him! ( BTW he's the dark swarthy one second from the left above ).

Beata Beatrix by Dante Gabriel Rossetti

Verticordia by Dante Gabriel Rossetti

It has often been my thought that the models seen in the paintings of the Pre-Raphaelites were the pin up girls of their day. They were sexy and provocative, a little bit on the naughty side and a million miles away from the stuffy conventions of the time. They were in essence the dream girls of the nubile minded Victorian man. I can imagine them gracing the garage walls of many a carriage repair crew.

I so hope this drama does my guys justice and doesn't play around with the facts too much. I'll find out tonight!
Desperate Romantics 9pm BBC 2

Nautical update:
I am very excited about the new purchases I made from ebay last week! I have decided to customise my own frames for my new nautical watercolour paintings and want to include little bits of the paintings narrative into the frame. I found some gorgeous little wooden ships wheel buttons and some miniture gold anchors.

I'm now on the look out for old frames of the correct dimensions to customise with pearls and shells. I am also hoping to use my new skill of applying metal leaf to give some of the frames gold and silver details! You can see my first attempt at this material on my painting Parfait Amour:

I'm hoping to get some new images of what I've been working on up next week!

Tart anyone?...

You can now see some of my other work in a brand new online exhibition at The Tart Gallery on Second Life! The collaborative show of international artists is called 'Burlesque' and had it's official opening last night. One of my pieces 'After Eight' sold seven times! It's well worth the visit to see beautiful work by some very talanted artists! But remember you must be a member to walk around: www.secondlife.com

Good read!

I'm also really happy to share I was listed as a great read by fellow blogger Erin of Follow the Tide!

Thanks very much Erin! In the same spirit of things I highly recommend her blog which features great images and thoughtful musings by an inquisitive 1940's loving nautical mind!

Stay tuned for my top blogs! I'm fast running out of typing time... until next time ***