Thursday, 17 February 2011

Fantasy Garden Sculptures

Today I have discovered a few more gems and I must admit some jealousy here as I am sure would many others reading this. This post is dedicated to the work of artist and sculptor Bruno Torf who's fantasy sculptures populate some wonderful gardens in Australia. Here is a bit of information from his website....

"After several years of this lifestyle, Bruno and the family made a decision to pack up and move to Australia to create a sculpture garden that he would run as a permanent attraction.The family arrived in Melbourne and shortly after had found the perfect place in the small Victorian village of Marysville. The luscious sub-alpine forests of the surrounding area – were the ideal setting for Bruno's plan and luckily the property he purchased he a large section of rain forest attached. After five months of backbreaking work Bruno's art and sculpture garden was opened to the public. Also on the property was a gallery that housed over 200 of his artworks brought over from Europe that included oil paintings, sketches and smaller sculptures.



The garden began with just fifteen life sizes terracotta sculptures, today there are over one hundred and fifteen pieces on display and Bruno is still making regular additions. The unique experience of the garden and its wondrous inhabitants attracts thousands of visitors a year. Bruno and the family still live there and always take great pleasure in being able to share their magnificent art treasure with all that come."









Very Impressive work I'm sure you will agree.

dfb

Tuesday, 8 February 2011

Hooray I can Post Again

After upgrading my Opera web browser the Blogger controls now actually work and I can once again post updates. This entry is a general collection of things....


First up some fantastic sculpts by Cyril Roquelaine. This very talented guy has some videos up on Youtube where you can watch him sculpt some pieces. These are two of my personal favourites I saw when I visited his site. You might want to turn the sound off if you dont like repetitive jazz though.






Cool Mini Or Not Figure of the Week

Whilst many lovely painted miniatures as always lurk in the top twenty of the week over on Cool Mini Or Not and more often than not it is tough to pick a favourite, this just had to be my pick of the bunch. Amazing work.

 
Games Force Magazine Issue 19 is now available in the UK - Just received my copy very swiftly delivered by El Greco Miniatures (I received this in 2 days flat!) I have used this company several times and can whole heartedly recommend them. No problems and swift delivery. It contains many articles by some of Cool Mini Or Not website artists - Jarhead (Roman Lappat), Arsies (Javier Gonealez) and Jeremie Bonament Teboul amongst others and a fantastic interview with Alan Carrasco.



Irregular Magazine Issue 7 is available to download free. This is a fantastic quarterly magazine and you get it at the link below....






 

Thursday, 16 December 2010

Tyre Sculptures

Okay, back to business with some more cool sculptures. This time made out of old worn tyres. I like it anyway.





Okay, I have missed a few weeks of top minis (hopefully I have not missed out on anything too wonderful) so here is my pick for the Sunday just gone. As a massive Spiderman fan, it could be none other than this wonderful piece painted by the extremely talented Crackpot.




Click on this one to see it in its full glory of course!!! You visit Crackpots gallery here and I am sure he would appreciate votes and comments. Crackpot's Gallery

dfb

Tyre Sculptures

Okay, back to business with some more cool sculptures. This time made out of old worn tyres.

Wednesday, 15 December 2010

Whoa Long Time No Post!!!

Well, it seems like it was a while since I was last here. Brushes out cobwebs. Anyway,I  had some browser issues, when going on the blog the page loaded but text entry box would not load correctly and the timer just kept on going..... Also I've been tired a lot lately, slowly getting used to my new job, not used to heavy physical work and work now feels more like gym! So hopefully after Christmas I will be back on track with sculpting. I have got some painting done however and an old sculpt of mine will shortly be released by Eastern Front Studios, more news on that when I have some. The figure in question can be seen in my Cool Mini Or Not gallery and will be made from resin in Eastern Fronts Dungeon Crawl line as the evil Treant "Ironbark".

Totally off tangent, this afternoon I was engaging in some nostalgia and came across a blog that was dedicated to my former school house competitive events. The school is Windsor Boys School which I attended until age 15 and all of the school houses were all named after old boys who died in World War 2 (err, kind of relevant to the blog?). Anyway, I was in Warwick house and I always did wonder what he did and how he died. Well only 23 years later have I found out. Rememberance Sunday has been and gone, so consider this a belated post on the event. Here is the story of Joe Warwick, founder of my school house and as simple as it may be every soldier had their own story, some heroic,some less so, but all equally important nevertheless.


"Joe Warwick attended Windsor Boys’ School from 1934 to 1940. He joined the R.A.F. as a pilot soon after leaving school and his initial training took him to Scotland, Canada and America (by then also at war). In February 1943 Joe completed his final flying assessment in Florida, USA, successfully gaining his Wings as a Sergeant Pilot.  On his return to the U.K. Joe was posted to IX Squadron, Bomber Command at their main base in Bardney, Lincolnshire where he quickly learned to fly the Avro Lancaster Bomber.  On his 15th successive bombing run over Germany, Joe’s luck ran out. Having taken several hits from enemy anti-aircraft guns and with perilously low fuel, Joe Warwick attempted a crash-landing on British soil in poor visibility. His Lancaster hit a tree and crashed at Markham Clinton in Nottinghamshire.  Pilot officer Warwick rests at St. Mary’s Church, Winkfield, where he had been a chorister and bell-ringer."

By Mary Davis

dfb

Sunday, 14 November 2010

Sunday Pick of the Week

I thought it might be an interesting thing to do a pick of the week from the top ten minis in the gallery from the Cool Mini Or Not website. Every sunday I'll post up a picture of my personal favourite from the chart. It will be hard as there are so many amazing models to choose from, but I will endeavour to pick something and post it. You can also check out my favourites list on the blog for a very comprehensive list of some of the best minis from the Cool Mini Or Not galleries.

I thought long and hard about my choice this week and I will give this weeks top pick to Tagamoga's Eldar War Walker. The things that strike me about it is the fantastic lighting effects and the sheer detail of the patterned lights on it. The base sets the model off nicely. So here it is.......



Please stop by and drop Tagamoga a vote and if you are a registered cmon member a comment, it's always appreciated! http://www.coolminiornot.com/263528

dfb

Friday, 12 November 2010

The Original Hells Kitchen

Okay, forget randomness, I have found some sculptural delights for you. The photo is unfortunately old and poor, but it was the general idea that warmed me to this effort, it is a shame the photo is not more detailed and I have no idea if this establishment still exists today, but enjoy the photo and story below anyway. Image and text from http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/ngm/flashback/0308/index.html



"A hot spot called Hell’s Café lured 19th-century Parisians to the city’s Montmartre neighborhood—like the Marais—on the Right Bank of the Seine. With plaster lost souls writhing on its walls and a bug-eyed devil’s head for a front door, le Café de l’Enfer may have been one of the world’s first theme restaurants. According to one 1899 visitor, the café’s doorman—in a Satan suit—welcomed diners with the greeting, “Enter and be damned!” Hell’s waiters also dressed as devils. An order for three black coffees spiked with cognac was shrieked back to the kitchen as: “Three seething bumpers of molten sins, with a dash of brimstone intensifier!”


Any Parisians who know whether or not this place still exists please post a comment, it is somewhere I might like to visit on my next trip to fabulous Paris!

dfb