Witness for the Prosecution

This is the third (and hopefully not the final) installation of an Agatha Christie mystery set. I was tasked to paint “Witness for the Prosecution” and was encouraged to watch the movie first. I’d seen it a LONG time ago, but as my memory, when it comes to films and books, seems to be sieved, so I was only to happy to have the excuse to watch it again, and boy was I glad I had. The movie was well written and superbly acted and I began the project brimming with ideas.

This set was painted right before the advent of my Christmas season and I was grateful for the timing. I’m not saying this would’ve been a slap dash project, but there would’ve been a few less gingham or twill designs painted, that’s for sure!

 

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Spinal Tap STONEHENGE

I’ve been dying to do another version of Spinal Tap for a L-O-N-G time now. They’re so ridiculously fun to paint that I’ve decided to add two more elements to the trio. For the first time, my Spinal Tap guys also come with a mini Stonehenge and a dancing Druid!

Isle of Dogs (And About Time Too!)

Okay, I am ashamed to admit it, but I actually started painting Wes Anderson’s hit stop motion “Isle of Dogs” over a year ago and got nowhere with it fast as life kept interrupting The Process. Fortunately a Wes Anderson enthusiast expressed interest in it which lit that ebbing flame under me once again and I was able to create this set just for her. There’s another half painted version languishing in my closet and I am hoping that now that I’ve gotten my feet wet, I am more motivated to finish it!

I’ve been painting a lot of dogs for the past few months so jumping into this set hadn’t been much of a problem. Believe it or not they are a little more difficult to paint than the human dolls due to the sheer amount of fur action they’ve got going on. I can’t even tell you how many audio books I’ve burned through whilst painting this set. I’m not complaining, though. Have you read Blake Crouch’s mindbending “Recursion?!?!”

This set consists of Chief, Boss (my favorite because of his little outfit), Spots, Duke, Rex, King, and of course, teeny weeny little Atari.

 

And Then There Were None

Following up with the Agatha Christie and her detectives set, I got to paint the entire cast of 1945’s version of “And Then There Were None.” The book had scared the bejeesus out of me when I was younger and also made me a Christie fan for life!

This one was interesting because the man who had proposed this set to me and I have decided right from the start to paint it entirely in black and white. It took the guesswork out of the entire process, which you would think makes things easier. But it was a bit hard in the beginning trying to determine which shade of grey to use for every single item! While working on this project I had a very discouraging setback for an ongoing endeavor, so I was grateful this one was a breeze through and through and therefore I didn’t have to be talked off the ledge!

This version features June Duprez as Vera Claythorne, Louis Hayward as Captain Philip Lombard, Roland Young as Detective William Henry Blore, Walter Huston as Dr. Edward G. Armstrong.

Barry Fitzgerald as Judge Francis J. Quinncannon, Judith Anderson as Emily Brent, Richard Haydn as Thomas Rogers, C. Aubrey Smith as General Sir John Mandrake, Queenie Leonard as Ethel Rogers, and…

…Mischa Auer as Prince Nikita “Nikki” Starloff!

If given the chance (and time), I will be all over “Murder on the Orient Express,” another oldie but a goodie!

 

 

This One Really Goes to Eleven

It’s really wonderful to see Spinal Tap is still popular after all these years. Why shouldn’t it be? I got around to painting a different version of it last year and am really looking forward to doing yet another one! This one comes with a mini amp. The amp is so tiny that I wasn’t able to paint little number 11 on it for this particular set but I did in a subsequent one, except I’d forgotten to take a photo of it. Like they say, if it’s not photographed, it’s didn’t happen. Luckily I’ll have another opportunity very soon to do so!

Agatha Christie and her Detectives

I have started working in my new sweatshop (and already being visited by the cutest Kingfisher, massive grasshoppers, and a few cats) on a cold and rainy week. It was quite fitting that the first set I’m working on at the new address was Agatha Christie and her myriad detectives. Although I wouldn’t exactly classify her books as one of those “cozy little mysteries,” but the gloomy weather did invoke the kind of English afternoons where tea is poured and scones are warmed and maybe a body or two are stumbled upon and I was more than happy to get right back into the game after 2 weeks of straight up moving and shoving furniture and boxes into place!

I grew up with two voracious readers for parents and both loved mysteries as much as me so there were always copies of Agatha Christie novels lying around the house. It was a wander down memory lane now as I painted Hercule Poirot, Miss Marple, Tuppence and Tommy, remembering my parents first telling me the plot to some of Christie’s works and then later me reading it for the first time.

The set was proposed to me and even though I was given photos of the actors portraying the characters, we kept the physical descriptions of them based on the novels. Sometimes I wish they would do more of that in films because, judging from what I’ve seen of Lifetime Channel’s promos of V.C. Andrews’ “Heaven” series, I know right now I am going to be vastly disappointed! I’ll watch them all, but I will not be happy about it!

New Home New Attitude!

I haven’t gone into it much on this blog, but for several years I’ve been extremely stressed out by my surrounding neighbors’ shenanigans. It became such a toxic environment to be in that I was actually thrilled when my landlady informed us that she’d sold the house we were living in to a developer. That in itself was a bit of a nightmare due to the fact our rental agency hadn’t bothered to inform us a complete and thorough demolition was scheduled when we were still living on the property but luckily my husband was savvy enough to suss things out before a wrecking ball came swinging into our living room!

But the Great Organizer of the Universe was truly looking after us because we found the perfect house in a perfect little neighborhood that was reminiscent of the one I grew up in 10,000 miles away and a perfect suburb that I’m loving more and more each day. Let’s face it, all that waterfront view was wasted on someone who prefer a bit more mountain and forest than sea and surf.

Granted, my new studio is so much smaller than the old one, but the view from my new window was almost identical to the one I left behind at my parents’ old home in Queens, NY. It means nothing to no one else, but it feels like I have a little piece of home back and I absolutely love it.

But the most remarkable thing of all, posted right outside the entryway into my street is this:

I suppose I’ll have to schedule some early morning walks now so I can run into one of these critters!

Christian Bale

This all-Christian Bale set project had been proposed several years ago by someone and it was brought up periodically, thus allowing me to keep an eye out for any of Mr. Bale’s endeavors. And boy, that man had been BUSY. He’s about the same age as me which meant I’d basically grew up watching his movies but I hadn’t really appreciate the vast body of work he had amassed throughout the years, which is makes me question my own existence. Yes, I’ve painted over 1000 set of dolls, but it hadn’t been my life’s work, you know? I’ve actually squandered quite a few decades of my life away on all sorts of nonsense. But I will like to point out that I have always known I’d be doing arty things and had grimly accepted the fact that I will never live a life of luxury because of that decision. Still, we basically all do this for the love of art, although Christian Bale tends to get a bit extreme by drastically changing his body for his craft whereas I get unreasonably annoyed if I get a bit of glue on my hand that I can’t distinguish from my already peeling skin.

The hardest part about this set is narrowing all the roles Christian Bale has played down to 6 dolls. After some back and fourth we decided on:

Patrick Bateman (American Psycho), Batman (The Dark Knight), Arthur Stuart (Velvet Goldmine), Melvin Purvis (Public Enemies), Dan Evans (3:10 to Yuma), and Irving Rosenfeld (American Hustle)

I was a bit upset and relieved that The Machinist was left out of the roster. It would’ve been a bit of challenge to paint an emaciated man on a roly poly nesting doll but I’d probably find a way around it and have a great time figuring it all out!

Boobies Boobies Boobies!

My god was this set ever fun to paint, and it was great to finally get my hands on it and really crank it out (albeit in the dead of night when the world is asleep. I’ve been the proverbial night owl for months now and I love it!).

This Valley of the Dolls set features the three ladies in the film:

Jennifer North (Sharon Tate), Anne Wells (Barbara Perkins), and of course Neely O’Hara (Patty Duke)

And, just for fun, this set also comes with two “dolls” which the women had become dependent on, like so many in the show biz.

I am slightly concerned that the pills would be too tempting for some, so I found the  biggest capsule imaginable that would give people pause should they decide popping these dolls are a good idea. It is filled with non-edible decorative sprinkles to further discourage consumption. It does look quite fun, though, I’ll give you that!

Freddie Mercury

I got a little high and dizzy while making the crown for the Freddie Mercury set and recalled an old Stephen Sondheim musical “Sunday in the Park with George.” When Sondheim wrote “Art Isn’t Easy,” I’m sure he hadn’t meant that an artist would pass out from all the toxic fumes emitting from the materials used to create a work of art. Granted, I did start most of it outdoors, but had to move it inside when the night closed in. But I’d rather suffer for my art than do anything else in the world!

This set had taken me months and months to complete. I actually started it before knowing the movie “Bohemian Rhapsody” was a thing! It wasn’t the execution itself that took ages to get it made, but the fact that I first had to experiment with the new kind of paint for the crown, how to construct the velvety layer inside and finding the right type of velvet to use. Then I couldn’t find first, the time, then the inspiration. But then it came rushing fourth and I built the crown in about 6 hours’. It had been one of the final steps to finishing the set, which, coincidentally, had also brought to mind anothe number from the same Sondheim musical: “Finishing the Hat.”

I always have a ton of fun making crowns and tiaras, and this one was no exception. All the materials needed had been foraged from my vast collection of baubles and bits and that in itself had been one of the best experiences of “finishing the hat.”