Flannel, Foxglove and One Fancy Fox

You know how it goes: you start off reading something online and end up caught in an interweb that steals hours from your life, hours which you will never get back. Sometimes though, you can turn this to your advantage, especially if you are an artist in search of inspiration - or more prosaically - if you have a blog to feed.

I started off this Brett Ryder journey by logging into my inbox, looking at a newsletter from the Balance Festival, and from there randomly clicked on one of their sponsors - Arctic Power Berries - that took me right to one of their own sponsors - Fenwick - and there this illustration from The Summer Season campaign caught my eye. A blog article was born.

The Summer Season campaign by Brett Ryder for Fenwick

The artwork looks a little frivolous, thank goodness, for frivolity is what is needed right now after the last few months my family and I have been through. So a little sunshine and a smattering of quirky characters and floral embellishments will do us fine. Besides, an ode to Summer will always get our votes, especially after a rather long Winter packed with bitterly cold days and nights spent in a Medieval house with no central heating and a leaking roof terrace!

More surrealism with a softer side is to be had when you browse Brett Ryder's agency portfolio. Here are a few notable pieces:

 'Can you build softer skills?' article for Construction Manager magazine, artwork by Brett Ryder

'I couldn't get anywhere' article for Brummell magazine, ibid.

Health Affairs, MERS in the Middle East, ibid.

Action for Happiness for The Telegraph, ibid.

'Rites: A Childhood in Guatemala', by Victor Perera for Beat #6, published by Heart, ibid.

Nongfu Spring mineral water bottle label - 'Summer', artwork by Brett Ryder

Wahey, if that bottled water taste as magical as its label, we are in for a treat!

Make sure to check out Brett's website portfolio.

The Jim Roslof Auction

Yesterday I took part in an interesting eBay auction organised by our friends over at The Collector's Trove, that of the late Jim Roslof's personal collection of sketches, studies, illustrations and other fine art collectables which he produced over a prolific 30 year-span, including for TSR (Tactical Studies Rules), the legendary Lake Geneva, Wisconsin-based company that unleashed fantasy role-playing game and brought us Dungeons & Dragons. Jim Roslof (1946-2011) was TSR talented Art Director, and headed a team of 12 accomplished artists who together lent TSR products their strong visual identity, and in doing so, influenced fantasy art at large to leave a lasting and distinctive all-encompassing legacy that includes calligraphy, illumination, engraving and cinematic images - a legacy which is still relevant today.

In the light of this, needless to say that the auction was a call to action for hardcore fans of D&D, strategy and war games, and for fantasy art collectors alike and Roslof aficionados. Jim's wife, Laura Roslof, an artist herself and a former TSR employee, made this possible by partnering with The Collector's Trove for the auctioning of Jim's treasures. Each numbered lot comes with its own unique Certificate of Authenticity signed by the lady herself.

As an aside, forgive me for quoting a 'cracking' anecdote relayed by The Collector's Trove in their auction listings:

'Laura, during her tenure, (...) was so successful with catalogs, reaching out to military organizations, service member periodicals, and military base exchanges that she turned the operation from a money-losing endeavor into a profitable one. As a result, the company's chief executive, Brian Blume, promptly fired her. He explained that the catalog operation was supposed to be a money-losing department for the tax write-off! He then re-assigned her to the Pre-Press Department where they did want to be profitable.'

I placed a number of (frantic!) bids on three separate items, including the Hippogriff (pictured above) and the figures kept creeping up. I soldiered on in the auction fever, placed a maximum bid but got outbid both financially and by the 7-hour time difference. The Hippogriff eventually sold off for $214.50. I am a little despondent because my fondness for the creature had increased more fondly along the way and I did covet that piece of art but that's the way it goes. All the best to Griff in his new life, and I am certain he will be lovingly looked after.

Source: All photography via The Collector's Trove. (1) TSR AD&D Monster Cards Hippogriff Original Study Colored Ink on Parchment, 1982, Unsigned Jim Roslof and TSR AD&D Monster Cards Hippogriff Original Study Ink on Parchment, 1982, Unsigned Jim Roslof. This is Jim's initial work on his Hippogriff Monster Card art. Auctioned off for $214.50. (Photography lightened up by Mirabelle). (2) The cherry on the auction's cake was the TSR D&D Module X1 Isle of Dread Back Cover Art, Unused Original Final Paint on Illustration Board, Unsigned 1985 Jim Roslof. Auctioned off for $3,828.00. Another covet of mine and a testament to classic fantasy art mastery, but sadly way out of my bidding league!

Z Movie Set

North of Bastia (Corsica) is a kitsch seaside hotel with a colourful and eccentric reputation that goes beyond its love affair with concrete posts and crazy paving. Its grounds double up as an alfresco impromptu modern art centre, with upcycled consumer waste, weathered raw rusty sculptures, metal wreckage, junk and debris. There is an air of neglect and abandonment that confer it that lived-in feel. Facts and fiction blur further as you venture deeper into the lush semi-tropical swampy gardens. The mind boggles and you start wondering whether what you see is meant to be showcased or you have actually entered a parallel universe... Is this a military testing area, an abandonned Soviet bloc resort, a failed Tiki trove, a jumble sale gone wrong or a (Rob) Zombie film set?

Across from the hotel, the pier is a crazy architectural feat, with totems, rusty sculptures, plaster figurines and incongru artefacts flirting with art from afar, broken down by shots of colour, incrustations and mosaics. It seems whoever concreted and partitioned off the creek with the pier had some fun and games trying to liven up the utilitarian look. You either get it or you don't. If in doubt ask the loyal crowd of afficionado hotel residents for their view. What is certain is that you will not remain indifferent to the rawness of it all and that's the name of the game!

The Festival d'arts "Singulièrement Brut" art fest has been in residence at the Hotel Caribou, 20228 Porticciolo, Cagnano, Corsica every Summer since 2006.

Source: All photography © Mirabelle Design Inspiration.

Brooke Shaden: Plunging into Fantasmagoria

Brooke Shaden is a promising young American photographer who brings Pre-Raphaelite proportions to her photography, what with painting quality, evanescent ghostly ambience and a cool symbiosis of stark and riches, plus evocative and thought-provoking titles to match.

Source: All photography by Brooke Shaden: (1) 'Sleepwaker', (2) 'An Intimate Affair', (3) 'The Lion and the Lamb', (4) 'The Inconvenience of Spirits' and (5) 'The Baby's Room'.

Mark Ryden: Pretty in Pink & Sold Out

Art book publisher Taschen features a treasure-trove of creative outlet and American artist Mark Ryden is no exception to the rule, as testified by his highly coveted and now sold-out Pinxit collection.

Source: Taschen. Top illustration is 'Allegory of the Four Elements'. More about Mark Ryden from Signature Illustration.

The World According to Julie Heffernan

Is it a microcosm or rather a macrocosm of self, delightfully interpreted by Surrealist artist Julie Heffernan on canvas, her symbolic vision of the world with nuances, light touches of colour, and admirably rich detailing, that invite spectators to explore and lose themselves in this total immersion experience, in this extrapolated imaginary world...

Pict 1-3: Respectively (1) 'Self -Portrait as Big World' (oil on canvas, 2008), (2) 'Self-Portrait as Sky-Scraper', and (3) 'Self-Portrait as Big House'. All sourced from Escape into Life: Julie Heffernan's Contructions of Self.