Learn the Ropes

Just a quickie this week! Here's a peek at the most recent painting for my nautical pin up series. I'm finding that as I work on it the theme is evolving, it isn't so much about traditional sailor tattoos anymore but heavily inspired by them. It is becoming a more fluid way of getting my ideas down. The theme is still nautical with each image taking it's cue from maritime sayings, but the outside influence is much looser now, I think the point when I was listening to Air in the studio while working and found myself going down a much more personal route really was the turning point.

With this image for instance I am definately getting a Kylie vibe through (probably as I keep listening to Boombox and Made of Glass) but also I have added my fascination with performance here and turned the mermaid into a kind of burlesque performer using japanese rope bondage as well as star pasties.

Other news:

The Chantilly Belles now have the video of our performance at Urbis for the Urbis Creatives launch night up online!

The night which took place earlier this year was to celebrate the launch of the Urbis Creatives website, a platform for the staff of Urbis who have creative projects outside of work. You can see the website HERE.

Urbis Creatives will have our own stall at this years Buy Art Fair to be held at Urbis from the 24th - 27th September. Along with other artists I will be showing and selling orignal artwork as part of one of the largest consumer art exhibitions in the country! More info to follow...

What to do with my website?... and how to relaxxx

This week I've been making some big decisions about my work and my website which you can see HERE

I've thinking about having an update and changing the overall look of the site. I would really appreciate your opinions about the current layout colour scheme and ease of navigation, please let me know what you think. I'm having a meeting with my website guy tomorrow so fingers crossed we come up with something fab!

Other news:

I'm pleased to announce that after months of trying to figure it out, I now have the performance of Never Outfox the Fox by The Chantilly Belles online! This was filmed when we performed at the Silk Stocking Striptease Show at the end of last year! Better late than never huh?

As well as my website, I've also been taking decisive action regarding my current art work and studio time; making timetables and lots of lists and changing my routine. I've been mulling things over for a while and all this thinking has been a bit stressful, which has inspired me to share with you my favourite things that help destress and cheer!:

Firstly I have a new obsession! Last week I was introduced to The Flight of the Conchords, a very funny low key comedy about two novelty musicians from New Zealand who have moved to New York. I can't beleive I only just found out about these guys! I have now watched the entire first series and am enjoying the second one.

Jemaine and Brett are adorable naive and disfuntional and the show is too obscure to relate properly, however each episode follows the boys as they attend band meetings with their manager Murray and try and avoid their number one and only fan Mel. So far they have been mugged, made friends with the muggers, gone on tour to an airport lounge and been published as a musical greetings card! My favourite songs includes the pairs take on rap stars and the David Bowie episode!

I am also enjoying listening to Kylie's track Boombox from her album Boombox. Here Kylie has embraced electro pop to the full and created a great dance track that is fun to sing along to.
I have had this track on lots at the studio while I've been painting. It's great for pepping up your energy! I've got a boombox...You've got batteries!

A couple of weeks ago I mentioned my huge excitment about the new TV drama Desperate Romantics, a series about the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. Well, I have been enjoying the show but as a super geek about the PRB's I have noticed lots of tweaking of the truth to condense the story into a six part drama. You can see clips from the show and more info HERE it's well worth a look for the gorgeous costumes the boys wear alone.

I bought the book the serial is based on and have found it fascinating! a full five stars from me! The author Franny Moyle has written a factual intense book covering the reality of the artistic movement and the private lives of it's members. You can really immerse yourself in it which I have been doing mostly on the bus. I highly recommend it!

All At Sea

Here's a pictoral update of one of my nautical paintings; All At Sea. I have been really inspired by classic tattoo artists but my main influence has been from photographers such as Madame Yevonde who's work made me think more theatrically and the artists Pierre and Giles who have helped direct my work in a decidedly French and melancholy direction.

Firstly I found that using a tracing of my image really helped with sizing and composition and placement, very much like tattoo artists when designing a piece of tattoo art. It also allowed me to make multiples of the same image.

I found that rather than outlining in ink lastly it really helped to draw the lines in first and then work the colour in. Here you can see the maleble nature of water colour paint. The dense pink on the girl's cheek was applied to a wet field and then spread out and difused.

Yet here the paint has been applied thickly in red to give a more matt look.

Here is the painting almost finished and still very wet. I plan to frame this in an oval frame and customise the frame with nautical paraphanalia. I'm working on several pieces at different stages and will keep you informed on how I'm getting on.

Other News:

I am now Tart of the Month on The Tart Gallery website! You can see examples of my work and I am thrilled to be listed amongst other artists such as the fabulous Angelique Houtkamp who I have covered earlier this year and the retro cool Mitch O Connell: www.thetartgallery.com

New Website:

I am also happy to share with you a new website by a great film maker, Hilary Easter Jones. Hilary was the director and producer of the wonderful film of The Chantilly Belles made for The Lowry's Express Yourself dance exhibition which you can watch HERE.
Wynter Productions make educational films for exhibitions and gallery spaces as well as providing bespoke films for artists wishing to promote themselves! www.wynterproductions.co.uk

Reading list:

Last week I was listed as a great read by Erin of Follow the Tide blog. So this week I thought I'd list my top reads as follows:

The Candy Pitch is a great blog with regular profiles of internationl burlesque performers called The Candy Gram. It also posts burlesque news and videos. It's author Kelly DiNardo even did piece about me and my art work and burlesque performing!

Diary of a Vintage Girl is an informative blog about the everyday exploits of pin up model and 1940's lover Fleur de Guerre. She has some great vintage clothing finds and is happy to share her info.

LOVE KYLIE is as you'd expect a blog all about the legend that is Kylie Minogue. It's slick and up to date and full of great pics of the pocket rocket!

Blonde and Red is a lovely blog from Rosanna and is all about her loves; Marilyn Monroe and 50's pin ups included.

InaGlo Photography

Due to a last mintue change of plan today I will have to post my full blog tomorrow. In the meantime please check out these fab photos of The Chantilly Belles performning our new act Chantillystein by InaGlo from Saturday's Dr Sketchy's in Birmingham. For more great photos by InaGlo go to her Flickr page: http://www.flickr.com/photos/inaglo/

Look out Doctor!

Dr Sketchy's Birmingham this Saturday!

I can't believe I forgot to mention that this weekend The Chantilly Belles are performing at Dr Sketchy's in Birmingham . It's an X Files themed event and all the acts are of the spooky and paranormal variety. We will be performing our new act 'Chantillystein' as seen at the Comedy 4 Chrisites event at the beginning of this month. We are really looking forward to it and hope to see all you artists and burlesque lovers there!

Dr Sketchy's Birmingham
The Victoria Pub
3.30pm
Tickets £8 can be bought from www.candeephotography.co.uk

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 ***

The Electric Michelangelo

Last week I picked up a fantastic book by chance from my local library. It was the cover that pulled me to it, so I guess that old saying 'never judge a book by it's cover' was wrong in this case.

The Electric Michelangelo by Sarah Hall is a story about tattooing. But focuses on the turn of the 1900's making it's way through the 20's 30's and 40's all to finish in the 1970's. Just think how much tattooing has changed over all that time.

The story focuses on Cyril Parks, an unassuming lad who grows up in Morecambe amongst the seaside atmosphere of music halls fish and chips and the Northern working class taking their treasured holidays on the coast. He lives in a sea front guest house run by his no nonsense mother who frequently takes in consumptives so that they can enjoy the sea air.

As he grows older we meet his friends, join them on their mucky adventures and learn about the town's tattooist, the notorious Elliot Riley; a man with a reputation as a drunk with a bad mouth.
Cyril eventually becomes his apprentice and learns the art of tattooing the painful way. No sentiment is spared by Riley who is made up of equal parts of good and bad and treats Cy (as he is known) to all the dark recesses of his bitter life. Riley's one redeeming feature is his art. He is the best tattoo artist in the whole of North England and people come to him because he is a legend and it is this gift he passes on to Cy.

After both his mother and Riley pass away Cy emmigrates to New York, setting up shop as The Electric Michelangelo on Coney Island boardwalk, the macabre end of town complete with circus freak shows and fun fairs. It is here he meets and falls in love with Grace, an eastern European immigrant working as a bare back rider. She commissions him to tattoo her entire body with eyes.

This book was so atmospheric and brought up many issues for thought. Not only did I enjoy learning about the history of the art itself, which the author obviously had researched thoroughly, I was mesmerised by the idea that a female would want to alter her body so drastically and step away from the normal ideals of polite society! I read with eager morbid fascination as her body was slowly covered from ankle to neck in thick oultined eyes. Again the whole idea of a female body staring back at the viewer was an interesting concept and one that was quite shocking but admirable in its reasoning. Grace, feeling that by altering her body in this way, she is in command of how it is seen, forever challenging the male gaze.

The story has many twists and turns and ends very well but leaves you deep in thought for a long time afterwards. The fact that the book blends so perfeclty with my own research and studies of classic sailor tattoos and pin up girls was brilliant. There was whole pages dedicated to a mermaid tattoo who seemed to have a siren call to the men that chose her. The author goes into deep analysis of just why tattooing is so necessesary to create landmark occassions in peoples lives. She also goes into discussion of why tattoo shops thrive by the sea, combining myth and art into contemporary folklore. I totally loved this book and have added all the ideas and images it has given me to my growing list of inspirations to my new work.

Other news:

Last week I told you about The Chantilly Belles performance at The Lowry in aid of Comedy 4 Christies. I recieved some photos from the night's official photographer in my inbox yesterday so thought I'd share them with you. There are more to come too!

The Doctor doesn't quite know what to make of her creation

The Monster just can't help herself!

Bandages off!


Chantillystein!