London’s Calling!

Bang-bang-bang! February, March, April in one volley! Helloooo! How is your autumn (or spring if you hail from northern climes) treating you? 2015 is whizzing past – I can’t believe it’s been so many months since I last posted – I have been preoccupied with other doings.  I am enjoying this calendar this year very much I must say. It brightens up the kitchen nook where it hangs.

In February I daydreamed about the Amalfi Coast, in March the cherry blossoms of Kyoto beckoned, and now it’s London enticing me with dreams of travel. It’s been years since I ventured overseas – past time to start planning another adventure!

Paris in January

Here we are on the flipside! New Year’s Day. I hope you all had a wonderful, safe and happy evening and are recovering nicely today. The real fun begins tomorrow – when all those New Year’s resolutions go into action.

My calendar for 2015 is called ‘Travel the World’, from the Rifle Paper Co. The delightful illustrations are by Anna Bond. I’m hoping the calendar will motivate me to save my pennies so I can look forward to an overseas holiday this year. Hmm, perhaps I should make that hope official and make it a New Year’s resolution? Happy January Snapettes – make it a good one!

Fancy-Shmancy Champagne

It’s the very last day of the year! Amazing! 2014 has flashed by so fast I can’t believe it. Did you achieve everything you wanted these past twelve months? I don’t think I did, although I managed to achieve some things I didn’t want this year! But, you live and you learn, I always say. And if you don’t learn, you can’t change and grow, and then what’s the point of spinning round on this old earth?

Fancy-schmancy champagne has a perfect finish every time, and friends will drink it in and forget whatever devlish double trouble and wonder conquered them.

This is from one of my new random poems: a sentiment I am very much looking forward to celebrating tonight. I’ll be drinking said champagne (topping up wild hibiscus flowers in syrup) with my friends tonight, ringing in the new year, and saying a very loud sayonara to the old. Happy New Year to you all!

Two Vogue Covers

Christmas And After, Vogue December 1918, illustrated by Helen DrydenOn the penultimate day of Christmas … No, of the year, my true love said to me, you shall have two Vogue covers to enjoy! Yes, I have been most remiss in posting on SNAP of late, but let’s finish the year with a bang!

I must say I very much enjoyed my Vogue calendar every month this year. I thought these last two were particularly lovely images. For November, there was a Helen Dryden illustrated cover from December 1918. The cover was titled, ‘Christmas and After’. Of course, the cover reflects the era: World War One ended on November 11 in 1918 – hence the rather tattered French flags and ribbons and those refreshing winds of change.

Christmas Number, Vogue December 1930, illustrated by Georges Lepape Georges Lepape brought me the December calendar page, from ‘Christmas Number’, November 1930. This is such a beautiful, simple and elegant cover, don’t you think? Whenever I see an old cover like this, I want to wave it under the collective noses of Vogue editors worldwide. See, you don’t need a zillion coverlines! Sometimes a picture really does speak a thousand words!

I hope you have had a wonderful November and December … and are gearing up for an awesome finale!

Happenstance

Here is a little bit of what I’ve been doing lately. After my upgrade to iPhone 6, one of my favourite apps, The Amazing Type-Writer, no longer worked. Fortunately I stumbled upon a secondhand typewriter in a charity store and had it serviced by the last typewriter repairman in Melbourne.

I rediscovered the joys of a mechanical typewriter, and have been having a lot of fun typing up poems on all the vintage paper I have collected. The papers date from approximately 1860–1970, and take the form of receipts, letters, envelopes, ledgers, notebooks and the like. I have also experimented with incorporating pen and ink illustrations on some of them, such as this one above.

The paper dated from around 1915 if I remember correctly, but the pencil scribble was barely legible. Written about a couple of years ago, the poem was a dream I had – I actually still retain some of the visuals, it made such a strong and eerie impression on me. Because the paper had already been written on in pencil, I couldn’t make even a rough sketch (with a view to possibly rubbing out errors) of the chandelier I intended to paint, so I boldly went straight in with the pen and ink.

I have always enjoyed fearlessly painting like that – loose gestures impart such a carefree mood. When paper is precious or very expensive, I have sometimes found it difficult to be insouciant with ink, but over the years I have slowly let that fear go. Accidental spills and drips and wonky lines are very rewarding in their own way: they’re real, in the moment, and there’s no artifice. I value that.