The Josie Baggley Company

Saturday 20 February 2010

Handmade & Handpainted Screen/Room Divider(Through The Looking Glass)














Here we have a handmade timber three door Screen or Room Divider & handpainted by yours truly! These screens are great for instant privacy by partitioning off part of a room eg a work station or when used for their original funtion ie to undress /dress behind...oooohlala !This one stands approx. 6ft. I've been working on this over the last couple of days. The carved head-scrolling looks very nice indeed. I thought I'd mess about with a Tenniel illustration (I had a three inch book picture to work from so although the detail is not exact & I've added my own detail here & there I think I've stuck to the style more or less..and I did use my magnifying glass lol .I DO really like this particular picture. It's a menacing scene suggesting all sorts of possibilities & I like the way Lion & Unicorn refer to Alice as 'monster'! I've also added genuine vintage French playing cards (about 80 years old) & an excerpt from an 1952 ED of Through The Looking Glass.It's been given a framing in gold leaf & freehand scrolling. All art work as is freehand as usual & signed. I've used acrylics and it's finished in a good coat of tough varnish so as it can be polished/wiped down and also to protest the artwork
For Sale on my website.( now SOLD)....order a similar piece, just email me for a quote!

Friday 12 February 2010

'Alice' by Jan Svankmajer

I LOVE this!x
My favourite Alice in Wonderland movie by far. I love the dark creepiness. The depictiopn of The White Rabbit is delivered perfectly to my mind!-sinister & weird! Other parts to this amazing movie can be viewed on youtube. Check out the Queen of Hearts & Jabberwocky clips. It took Svankmajer TWO years to make using stop motion technique. A method that he has used in other fabulous movies too. A preternatural accomplishment this movie is seemingly simple without all the Hollywood accoutrements yet would be hard to duplicate. Of course HIS Wonderland vision was key. Just FABULOUS!

Monday 8 February 2010

Tragic Fool! Original Painting











'Tragic Fool' ,
Claude Arundale
in..
'Sold Out in Love'
Original Painting with added ephemera
19.5'' x 19.5

Let me spin you a wicked yarn...


'Claude Arundale was a Tragic Fool..more tragic than anyone who ever had cause to be so. He was brutally 'sold out in love' & grieved & screamed like a tortured soul into the spirit of a thousand & one nights until he had ripped out his past from his being . And so, the Fool Claude Arundale became a twisted clown with an icy visage who loved only to endure & to give horror & pain . He attracted his victims with his sorrowful appearance & jester attire & when they realised all was a jest & wore shock in their eyes.(that was the part he enjoyed the most)..his shrill of a laugh cut the night hush into a nightmare.Oh how he loved to trick & torture & live to love to hate.'

Original Painting with then added 1921 music manuscript & very old lace to the neckline & metal-fabric to the headpiece. Claude's face is handpainted & then varnished to a gloss finish to achieve an 'ice' look by picking up & reflecting shadow & light I've painted his hat & harlequin background in a faded murky finish.
This painting is the subject of my first post with Dark Arts Guild of which I am a proud member.

Saturday 6 February 2010

Look! Look! Look !


I'm breathless people! Just LOOK would you, at what my dear friend Johanna Spinks in California has drawn! 'Tis ME !-a painted drawing of me in the hat that I've made especially for her ! Isn't that amazing? Are you jealous?;) hehe. Johanna is well into the beginning of a challenge that really requires great discipline ,that is to complete one drawing EVERY day for 365 days. Wow! and I tell ya every single drawing that she has done is bloody superb! She truly is a master of her craft. Her command of brush & paint would be of a calibre that most will never reach no matter how much we try ,learn (sad but true!) she simply has an old masters' gift-that's why there are so few with this natural expertise. So this is her drawing for today...ME! Oh good gawd I am so chuffed & flattered!! The thing is my husband wants to buy this work now as he doesn't want anybody else to have it! The sweetheart! I'm not objecting mind you!

You won't be at all disappointed should you pop over to Johanna's Blog right now & have a nelly! Then,I would recommend that you continue on to her fabulous website . Seriously have a look ..truly inspiring.

Thankyou so much Johanna...I LOVE it!

Monday 1 February 2010

Johanna's Molly Moppit Hat & Fleamarket Floozies


Hello there Baggley Dears,

well here we have a Molly Moppit Hat handsewn by mey wee little fingers for the wonderful Johanna Spinks. We have arranged a fine trade. In return for this chocolate velvet bonnet with pink antique rose pin I'll be receiving the beautiful painting that she mastered of my Pink French House when she was over there on a residency a couple of months back.

A Molly Moppit Hat is named so due to the fact that in olden times the washer women(mop lady) would wear a similar style usually in a white cotton & with lace trim for night-time! The vinateg velvet(not velour) is luxurious...so soft & is a sumptious shade of delectable chocolate. I bought the fabric & the vintage brooch at a Puce (flea market) in Ploubelay in Brittany. The lace & pink satin used to make the rose-pin is from an Irish antique gown & is so pretty & delicately comprised. I have also lined the bonnet & it has my label.

I am really looking forward to her receiving this almost as much as I am about receiving the painting.

If YOU would like to trade/barter then go to The Fleamarket Floozies(GRAB the badge). This is a facebook page that Jo over at The Crow Road launched after herself & myself thought up the idea in conjunction with Debs's The Barter Circle (GRAB the badge). Alicia of Altered Bits, Kirsten of Fleur de Boheme are also Floozy admin . Just send any of us a request if you'd like to become a Floozy & join us on our little online swap-shop.'Barter Late Than Never! You can take the Fleamarket Floozies badge on the side bar and it links you to the page.I did the badge design using a detail panel of a previous collage work that I did on a three panelled room divider.We'll have another couple of these room dividers/screens for sale on
The Josie Baggley Company Website in a couple of weeks .In reply to a couple of emails asking whether or not I sell prints of my paintings ( The Mad Hatter in particular)...YEP I'll have them ready soon sweeties! . They''l be printed onto linen canvas and then signed & numbered& some handpainted embellishment will be done to each-giving each print a unique finish to the next.