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 ***

Water colours......hmmmmmm?

While I'm typing this I'm listening to an unreleased track by Kylie called Sexual Gold! If you'd like to hear it click HERE. Thanks to Love Kylie for sharing this priceless information!

I have been experimenting with water colour this week for my new work based on sailor tattoos. As I said last week this is probably the best meduim for tattoo style art work as the application and texture is very similar to the real thing. But I am a girl who is used to acrylic, and learning how to handle the watery stuff is not as straight forward as you'd think!

I found a few good water colour technique videos on youtube, but nothing beats just getting stuck in and feeling for yourself how the paint moves and mixes.

It certainly doesn't dry quickly like acrylics and it is much more malleable. You can also re-work the paint even after it's dried completely unlike acrylics. It's advised to stretch your paper before using water colours as they tend to ruckle up the paper otherwise. I bought a special pad of paper glued around all edges so shouldn't have this problem, but I have my suspicions as I covered an entire page in wet paint yesterday and I definately saw some ruckling! But maybe it will look different when it's dry?

So on the whole I'm enjoying the new experience of using water colour and I especially like applying indian ink to the outlines when the paint is dry. So I like water colour and I like acrylic, but which one is better? there's only one way to find out....... Stay tuned!

Other news:
I am soon to be Tart of the Month on the Tart Gallery website! This fabulous website is ran by the Pop Tarts, two female artists based in Vancouver who paint women within a pop culture context. They hold regular exhibits all accentuated by music and costume! The Tart of the Month is a regular feature on the site showcasing other artists with similar themes and styles. I am so excited to be included in this list of sensual and provocative artists, featuring none other than Angelique Houtkamp! (See last post)

I am also to be included in a collaborative virtual exhibition on Second Life in the 3D virtual Tart Gallery with the theme of burlesque! This is extra exciting and new to me and I am really interested to see the results! I am now on Second Life and tentitivley finding my way around, if you bump into me my name is Gemma Vespucciano (You're not allowed your real name).

More info to follow...