matouenpeluche

Happy Friday and three top blogs!

 

Happy Friday everyone! Here is an encore from Georges Barbier. You may recall I did a post on him before but I feel he's so lovely I coudn't resist revisiting him!

Also, it was very remiss of me not to mention this before but the gorgeous high priestess of blogs, Gabbi of Felinofelice did a piece on my work earlier in the week. Her blog is all kinds of beautiful at once! ...and the lovely Christina, who owns the chatty and incredibly entertaining blog Down and Out Chic, has also a piece about my work as part of her tour of her art collection! And! A fabulous blogger I've met recently: the jet setting fashionista Miriam of Bjorn Borg : Insider's Journal has also included me in her list of blogs she likes!! Goodness me! All three blogs will have you totally mesmerized by their content, style and chutzpah!

Have a super lovely weekend all: Southern Hemisphere people try to keep warm and dry while the Northern Hemisphere people keep cool and relaxed! O.K. now back to Georges... 

 

 

Little Round Robin!

Meanwhile, it's raining cats and dogs here in Sydney and it's very cold. The wind is being whipped off The Blue Mountains which are surely covered in snow. Still, I don't actually mind because I think the changing of the seasons in Sydney, although not as marked as in some European and North American places, is one of life's joys. I love the different flowers, foliage and the different light you get. You also, of course, get different sets of birds and bird calls. My favourite is a Chinese cuckoo that flies into Sydney in summer. He has a simple call but it's such a lovely sound!

Above is another drawing from the weekend: Little Round Robin. He looks a bit stern but I think it's all show and that he's actually a softy underneath! He's in my shop here!

Hump Day be gone people! It's all plain sailing from here on in!

Architectural geekery.

From time to time, I like to wander around the city and take photos of buildings that particularly tickle my fancy. Anything Art Deco always gets my camera out as does a fine piece of Victorian detailing.

Above, in all its Art Deco splendour, is Wynyard or Railway House as it's officially known as. It's the classic Deco green terracotta tile cladding with the mushroom coloured granite that really gets me going!

Did you know that Brian Singer's "Superman" used this glorious building for The Daily Planet? I walked past a couple of times while they were filming and I nearly caught sight of Kate Bosworth and her then boyfriend Orlando Swoon...ahem Bloom..gazing into each other's eyes.

This piece of fine plaster work is from another era entirely. It's from the Trades Hall a building that was owned by the Trades Hall Association, the original trade union affiliates who built the hall in 1888. This bit of lovely Art Nouveau was casually tucked away in some corridor. 

This last photo is one I risked life and limb for! Well, not really but it was a scary photo to take as I had to dangle over the railing of a very high stairwell. It was taken in a grand old Victorian building that is still used and loved today: The Department of Lands Building. I'm a real sucker for black and white tiled floors! 

Art Deco Evenings...

Ah! Here we are again at Monday! This is a drawing I completed on the weekend. Something a little different for me because a) it has background and b) the young lovely thing is wearing a patterned dress. Usually my gals wear dresses that are solid colour. So, I had an explore drawing wise! You can find her in my shop as a small print here!

Hope everyone is rested and relaxed and refreshed after the weekend! Although, I think some folk are enjoying a long weekend, no?

New York, New York

*Sigh* New York, New York! As it's the 4th of July tomorrow I thought a bit of my all time favourite dreamy city was in order. Actually, it is my secret desire to do a zig zaggy road trip from one coast of America to the other and visit as many states as possible in between. But at some stage, I'd most definitely have to have an extended stop over in the Big Apple!

Happy Friday everyone and a special Happy 4th of July to all your gorgeous folk in the U.S of A!

 

 

 

All photos are from Conde Nast.

Astral Rabbit Rides Again!

Behold! A very bad scan of a page from The Adventures of Astral Rabbit. As you may or may not recall, yesterday I posted some photos of two beloved former animal companions: Charles Aznavour and Astral Rabbit. Astral Rabbit was named after a cartoon I was up to my eyebrows in at the time. I thought today I'd show you a small portion of that story.

Above you can see our hero, Astral Rabbit, valiantly escaping the evil duo Mike and Felix on an elephant. I can't quite remember what the story behind Mike and Felix is, I'm sure if I rummaged around I could find the chapters that fill me in on their evilness. Anyway, Mike and Felix being the resourceful chaps that they are, are consulting a gypsy crystal ball reader: Madame Pink Eye as to the whereabouts of hero Astral. It really doesn't get much more exciting! 

It's a big drawing! I didn't ever think about the logistics of mass producing any of this story i.e. in a book or something. I just drew it for myself. I was a mad keen cartoonist at that time and was drawing like my life depended on it for inner city newspapers and even for bigger publications like Australian Mad Magazine. Since then I have settled down and have discovered the wonderful smudgy world of pastels and charcoal and Art Deco dames and pretty birds!

Hump Day be gone folks! We're on a downward trajectory towards a bliss filled weekend!

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 two new drawings of a new animal I haven't as yet explored! Mice! The top mouse here is called "A little love" and the second drawing is called "The Visitor". Both are 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!