Rae's a Birthday Toast

ink & watercolour illustration, 7" x 8" [18 x 20cm]

One of our lovely regulars here is having a birthday.  With the tact and discretion you've come to expect, I'll allow her to put up her hand if she wishes.  I thought we could all meet at Rae's for a swish and hip birthday dinner.  It's a shame this restaurant no longer exists outside my imagination, but it will provide us with the perfect place, as we'll have it entirely to ourselves.  After this stint in the Brisbane CBD quite some years ago, the owner {who I think could possibly be named "Rae"} had a sea change south to the beautiful coastal town of Byron Bay on the eastern-most tip of mainland Australia, and created this luxurious spot.  Come to think of it, we can easily move the party there ... just wait one moment while I hire a vintage convertible Mercedes and Vespas with side-cars.

Happy Birthday, birthday girl!

Francophile Friday: The Tenin Perspective Phenomenon

ink & watercolour illustration, photo inspiration thanks to Eric Tenin

If you love Paris, you must surely by now be aware of Paris Daily Photo.  If not, please visit there post haste and bookmark or subscribe tout de suite, otherwise you are missing out on a daily treat of great magnitude!   

Paris Daily Photo celebrated its 5th birthday yesterday.  PDP was created by the sweet and friendly Parisian {"yes, it's true!"} Eric Tenin, and the City Daily Photo community grew from there, also thanks to Eric.  For five years {and one day}, Eric has been posting a photo of Paris every single day, and in the process, has also become known for taking photos at ground level or from tipsy angles, in spite of never once being tipsy while photographing.  Never once.  Yesterday, many members of the CDP community honoured Eric by taking their daily photos while lying flat on their stomachs in the middle of traffic, or kneeling while aiming skywards and toppling over like nine pins, thereby creating an extension of the Tenin Perspective, known as the Tenin Perspective Phenomenon ~ the likes of which could well be seen again each year around this time.  So when you're out and about in your city on 11th March each year, please, do remember to look down in case there's a dedicated City Daily Photo blogger lying prostrate before you while taking a no-doubt-sensational photo.

Today's illustration is a tribute to Eric, based on his photo taken on Rue Victor Massé, typifying just one example of the Tenin Perspective.  {Thank goodness I chose not to do this in Meep Miniature...} Congratulations on five remarkable years of dedication and generosity of spirit, dear Eric, and wishing you as many more as makes you happy!    And on that note...

Happy Francophile Friday to you all!

Pining at the Bathing Pavilion

ink & watercolour illustration, 8" x 5.75" [20.5 x 14.5cm]

I know it's late, but no, I haven't been lounging at the Bathing Pavilion in Redcliffe all day.  {I haven't been there at all today.  And you might be wondering what I'm doing here.  Surprise!}  But if I had been at the Bathing Pavilion today, I'd have worn a large, wide-brimmed hat and polka-dotted swimming togs with a frilled skirt.  And white-framed sunglasses and matching heels.  I feel those would really set it off a treat.  So would some fish and chips.  Anyone care to join me before the rain sets in again?

Francophile Friday: Madame et Le Chat Noir

ink & watercolour illustration, 8.75" x 7" [22.5 x 18cm]

Black cats bring me luck.   If you don't believe me, just look at this.  Kind and sweet MmeBenaut {and fellow kitty fancier} sent me her travel photos of this gorgeous Paris scene, so I consider myself very lucky.  

Thank you for the beautiful photo inspiration, MmeB!!!  As for my own black cats, they've brought me not just luck, but more love-purr-kilo than I can describe.  I'm truly blessed.  And on that note...

Happy Francophile Friday to you all!

PS:  You might find me just posting on Fridays some weeks ~ please bear with me and thanks for understanding ~ assuming you do understand and aren't presently shaking your fist or waving a pitchfork at me!

Casa Del-uge

ink & watercolour illustration, 7" x 8" [18 x 19.5cm]

We've had quite a deluge in the last 24 hours or so, making it the wettest summer we've had for six years.  Tanks are overflowing.  Washing is hanging limp and steadfastly refusing to dry in spite of the washing line being under good cover, and repeated threats of tumble-drying from yours truly.  And my Closet Camels have grown a second hump and left in search of a nice stretch of desert.  

This old place with its confusion of styles is as confusingly named Casa Del Mar, in spite of being near the Brisbane River, not the sea. Let's hope poor drainage doesn't turn their yard into a swimming pool to further confuse the Gods of House Names.

Venerdi in Venice: Roamin' Gondola

 

ink & watercolour illustration commission for Sisterhood of the Travelling Scarves

When engaged by these women to go roaming, the gondolier had an entirely different kind of Rome in mind.  Luckily, they're quite happy and not at all alarmed to suddenly find themselves in the fountain outside the Pantheon, in spite of this not being a Tim Burton movie.   But there is more to the story...

A few months ago, a lovely lady named Michelle saw my illo over at Pierre's Venice Daily Photo.  Before you could order a Chianti, she'd told some of her Italy-besotted friends, and the charming Maxine commissioned me to create an illustration to represent the friendship and shared love of Italy within their group {known amongst themselves as the Sisterhood of the Travelling Scarves}.  Maxine's brief to me was to draw three ladies with scarves and incorporate a gondola and the Pantheon.  So you see, the gondolier was on the right track after all, though possibly shouldn't have deserted his post for the sake of a quick gelato nearby {something I'm tempted to do myself}.

Since then, I've met several of the Sisterhood through emails, including one hilarious lady who happens to live in North Queensland, not far {by a country folks' compass} from where my father was born.  Get outta here! I thoroughly enjoyed the process, and what a delightful bunch they are!  I'll bet none of them would mind steering the gondola around the fountain in the absence of their errant gondolier ~ not one little bit. And on that note...

Happy Venerdi in Venice {and Rome} to you!

Shed Your Office Hours

ink & watercolour illustration, 5.5" x 8.25" [14.5 x 21cm]

There are sheds, and there are sheds.  This one falls into the latter category. 

I'd be quite happy to have one of these tucked in my garden ~ an old whitewashed-timber studio and its corrugated iron roof that can't be heard over when the rain pounds down on it.  An endearing spot where I could sit overlooking the lavender bush I don't have, while sipping tea that I do have, and wearing designer gumboots I don't have.  Not today, though ~ I'd be passed out on the floor from heatstroke.   Curse you, February...

I'm not sure if any of that ever goes on in this former stable-turned-office, but it is quaint and alluring.  It {and the cottage it accompanies} belongs to heritage architect Peter Freeman and his wife Tanny, in the town of Moruya on the NSW South Coast, as featured in Country Style's Australian February edition. 

I suspect they have real gumboots...

Friday Fleurish: Blooming Tiny

ink & watercolour weensy, 3" x 2.25" [8 x 6cm]

While I'm in a meep* mood of myopathy, I thought I'd continue with our miniatures theme for today.  This still life is on a much smaller scale than Tuesday's scenes, thus somehow creating a miniature on a larger scale {and the opportunity to use the word thus}.  Don't ask me how ~ something to do with Einstein's Theory of Relativity.  Or was it membership of the Mickey Mouse Club...

Regardless, here's to a blooming nice weekend!  And on that note ~

Happy Friday Fleurish to you!

*Meep (mēp) Etymology: 2010  An endearing word coined by AmyR; a gently surprised exclamation meaning, "How delightful!", especially used when happening by chance upon something tiny and enchanting.  Not surprisingly, Amy spends much of her time at Disneyland.

Just A Tiny Post Today

ink & watercolour weensy, 3" x 2.25" [8 x 6cm]

Perhaps because I'm a bit on the tiny side myself, I'm rather fond of tiny things, and I'm not just talking about petits fours, mini macarons and cocktail food.   It's been a while since I drew some weensy works, so today I plied myself with hydrating eyedrops and set about it.  One thousand three hundred and sixty-five blinks later, voilà, a little French farmhouse...

  ink & watercolour weensy, 3" x 2.25" [8 x 6cm]

...and a little restaurant for lunch in the village nearby. {Let's not panic ~ I hear they serve standard-sized meals}.  Depending on your screen, what you see here may be pretty close to actual size of the drawings.  Now I just need a dolls' house to hang them in...