Wednesday, July 30, 2008

Frankenstein's Cat Art Show (continued)

It's been a while since I posted on the blog, but real world distractions such as workloads and family fun have prevented my yakking. Recently managed to complete three more paintings from the forthcoming Frankenstein's Cat Art Show, as shown below:





Three more paintings to complete for the show, now, and am already up to my paint-smeared thumbs in each of those. I'm actively on the look-out for any galleries who might be interested in showing the Frankenstein's Cat art show, in addition to the Biteneck Beatniks. If you're interested or indeed have any recommendations of cool, groovy galleries who you reckon may be interested in this and it's worth my contacting them, please do leave the details here. I didn't realise when I embarked upon the show just how long it was going to take me - possibly this is because when I did the bulk of my Biteneck Beatniks art show I wasn't looking after the kids, but for the last 12 months or so I've had lots of daddy time with my girls, which is brilliant. The only downside is that it doesn't make painting any easier to get stuck into. Swings and roundabouts as my old history teacher Mr Bullough would say.

And talking of old teachers, I was at a booksigning in Waterstones in Ormskirk last Saturday when who should come in but TWO of my old high school teachers to surprise me, Miss Crompton and Mrs Hartley. I've now been advised that it is perfectly acceptable to refer to them as Janet and Rosemary, possibly due to the fact that having a 36 year old refer to them as "Miss" in a childrens bookshop can indeed come across as a little awkward. It was lovely to see them and a huge thrill for me - I remember each of them very well, although it appears that my photographic-memory-armed idiot savant elder brother was the one who really stuck in their minds! Cheers Mark! ;-D Thanks for coming Janet and Rosemary!

Been out and about doing lots of school visits and workshops in the last few weeks too, including a spot at the Showcomotion festival in Sheffield, which was great fun. I've been to two tremendous independent schools, Farlington nr Horsham and Giggleswick in North Yorkshire, to hold talks as well as give away prizes on their end of year awards days. Thank you SOOOO much to Joy Baggs and her staff at Farlington and Mark Brotherton and his staff at Giggleswick for making me feel so at home.


Below are the original roughs for the art show, before I got jiggy with the paints!



FILM REVIEW

And new to Badablingthing....

DIARY OF THE DEAD - a fine addition to Romero's pantheon of zombie tales. Following the POV of a team of college filmmakers who happen to have cameras on a shoot, they end up documenting the events that unfold as the zombies start to eat their way through America. Not up there with the FX budget of Land Of The Dead, but still splendid nonetheless

CLOVERFIELD - I really rather enjoyed this, and it had the same wobbly-cam effect as DIARY, what with being a "home movie" of a giant Cthulhu-esque monster romping it's way through New York. There was plenty there to give you the 9-11 tingles, plus big enjoyment when one of the characters you think is a lead gets smited early on! Bleak ending? Nonsense, for bleak endings look no further than...

THE MIST - I absolutely loved this movie, although it did bum Emma and I out with the ending. But then again, it's a horror movie, and you want a shock at the end. Doesn't come much bigger in my eyes. FX were OK but you can excuse that to a degree as the direction and acting really is top notch from an ensemble who are really on top of their game. What is it with Cthulhu-esque monsters all of a sudden?

What, they're all horror movies? And I work in kids books? Go figure...

Bada Bling!

11 comments:

C.B. Canga said...

like the work on this blog. keep it up

Tidyfiguremaker said...

Cool stuff Curtis, very nice. Let me know if they are going to be shown anywhere near to me and I will take a trip to see them. I know what you mean about work/life balance and kids when you work from home. Still, they will remember you being there for them, so that's cool. I will have to check those movies out as I haven't seen anything recently apart from Indiana Jones IV which I enjoyed although I know lots didn't. My work is going well, lot's on, and with that I must get back to it!

dragonhead said...

Glad to see that the art show is moving forward. 'Fantastic Captain Bat' looks like it could easily be it's own spin-off.

Vertigo kept me from seeing Cloverfield... too much camera movement. :/

Marcelo Vignali said...

Way to go with all the successes. I haven't been blogging much, so it was good to visit with you and catch up on what you've been up to.

Joseph Lee said...

Very cool illustrations!

Chris Kennett said...

Great stuff man. You'll be pleased to know that Frankenstein's Cat goes down a treat with my kids down here in Australia.

Jo Bling said...

CB - cheers dude!

Tidy - thanks for calling by, lovely fella ;-) Indy was cool for an old fella running about - I was just relieved he didn't take his shirt off as he was looking a bit wobbly in Temple Of Doom and with candyfloss for hair any more nakedness was never going to be a good thing!

Dragonhead - thanks buddy! Cloverfield, stick with it!

Marcelo - as ever, thanks for saying hi sir. Been busy with workload and family stuff, which is probably obvious in the post, so it's lovely to get a chance to show stuff again.

Joseph - thanks man and "hello!" :-)

Chris - you getting the Cat on ABC down under? Sweet - how's it being received outside of the Kennett household? ;-)

Chris Kennett said...

Ha well, I can't speak for everyone of course. But your show does always feature prominantly on all the ABC Kids promos. So its definately getting a plug or two. Which is nice.

Jason Miskimins said...

cool stuff...i like.

Albert Sorrentino Jr. said...

Well, you've made a new fan!! Amazing blog and congrads on the show!

Dominic Philibert said...

Love your style!!!!