The Josie Baggley Company

Saturday, 2 October 2010

Albert Von Tilzer~ Original fantasy painting in my White Rabbit Series











Albert Von Tilzer

Original Painting with added Mixed Media (papers not reprints), Parisien Queen playing card piece, vint. lace, antique paper
(Another in my White Rabbit series-most of which are now hopping all over the world)

the story goes...(in MY head anyway! :))...

Albert Von Tilzer was a dapper Austrian Magician during the late 18th c. He was grand uncle to The White Rabbit ehemm ..yes.. and packed out the theatres such as Theater Van Der Wien with his jaw dropping performance to the delight of his adoring audience...pulling a medium sized child from his top hat was his signature trick. He was also a shrewd investor & bought up many cafés & speakeasies which yielded him a pretty penny. He also took part in the seasonal Balls in particular The Kaffeesiederball in Vienna where he sang his ears off on a beerfilled belly & on one publicised occasion fell off the stage and broke his pufftail in three places. It was in plaster for two months . It was never the same again and he noticeably walked to one side from that moment on.
I think he resembles the actor John Malkovich.

Thursday, 19 August 2010

Sacred Heart of Happiness~ Original Painting (with added mixed media)









Hi folks!

This is a new piece that I've just completed .
''Sacred Heart of happiness-
-(repeat twelve times daily) ''
Handpainted portrait- she turned out to be kind of 'pop arty-vintage with a Santo thing going on -I THINK! and then I've added very old (from 1918) tears of paper & vintage lace to give texture & a tactile multi dimensional quality to it. I've mixed my colours to give an old plaster and peeling paint type of look to the background. I love to incorporate old vintage & antique 'bits' to my work rather than leave a 'cleancut painting'. I used to paint portraits at one time in my life and got quite bored with its boundaries so now I really enjoy pushing the boundaries so to speak on a finished painting to get a finished mixed media original painting whilst keeping the integrity of the raw painting....haha I know what I mean in my own head anyway lol This one has been sold to a University in the UK.

Thursday, 8 July 2010

Steampunk Fantasia














This is a few of my latest Steampunk Fantasia pendants that I'm in the process of uploading to my website(long drawn out process of L>>I>>>S>>>T>>I>>N>>>G>) I am so lazy with regards to taking pics ,resizing the things , measuring, describing etc and then when I'm just about to click SAVE ...what happens? yep the page freezes! Drives me mad madder maddest..Anyway I'll have this selection and more at my Steampunk Stall at The Ferocious Mingle Market on Sunday.









































Sunday, 27 June 2010

So sorry I'm LATE ..Mad Late in fact...A Cuppa Steampunk Anyone?
















26th MIDNIGHT;
-Dear Mad Tea party folks...I've spent the evening and night trying my hardest to upload my pre-made mini video from my digital camera & for the life of me I CANNOT get it from the file to the blog! I can open it with windows media player with NO images & in a downloaded AVI with no bloody SOUND! I've even downloaded CODECS -whatever THEY are!
I give up but will try again in the morning. I'm so disappointed that I'm late so Late I couldn't play sniff SNIFF ;( and I've had to eat all the meringues & eclairs on my ownio too. A Big thanks to Vanessa over at A Fanciful Twist for hosting this quite mad event! :) To bed with me now as it's 2.15 in the morn. xx
27TH 8PM
Ok so AT LAST ! I've uploaded the bloody thing and yes yes it IS on its side alright :) but I think you'll all look rather fetching with your little heads tilted to one side :)
The thing is blurred in instances but I didn't want to mess about with it any further just in case it blew UP!
Myself & my daughter Jade had such a laugh making this clip..I'm sure the neighbours did too..they would have heard the most bizarre sentences
'' Spread the butter onto the pocketwatch with the fork & then stir Alice and the eye around in the tea'' :)

Thursday, 4 March 2010

'We're All Mad Here' Painting with added mixed media


















We're All Mad Here'
Indeed we ARE! wooohoooo jump onto the bandwagon of wonderland!-it's a tad over populated but we can squeeze in more surely? Good gawd I'm spending WAY too much time online! I can feel my waffling about to start...yep...here we go..So much time just melting into the screen ...I have SO much to DO..So I'm going to post here once a week ..or so & do my VERY best to comment on all your lovely blogs. So sorry if I've not visited you ..I do look & read and oooh & ahh but I don't comment as much as I should,as much as I'd like to! Myself & Jim are still working on 'PAN' the furniture piece...we're surveying counter balance stuff a the moment ..very technical stuff yes ehem...it's a heavy piece you see..we have to 'stop sticking on clumps of wood ffs -this thing could kill you!'I say....but we 'NEED to counter balance ffs' Jim says.

This is a painting I've just finished. I painted my wonky version of The CC & used various mixed media to add interest ie antique wire rimmed specs -securely wired to the back frame; vintage wallpaper 20's -a gift from my pal Alicia Altered Bits, vintage 50's magazine cut out of an eye -the right one (the left is handpainted-as is the rest of his face) gold leaf & 1920's music manuscript papers.

Secret Sunday

:)Delirah to say that I'll be one of the artists featured on *~The Altered Page 'Secret Sunday'~* this Sun 7th March. It's a fantastic inspiring idea of Seth's that offers to all who are interested, a visual gallery with lists of artists' work secrets, techniques & info. I heard of it via Jo over at The Crow Road. Both Jo & Alicia have also been featured on Seth's Secret Sunday.I think it'll be week 15 this week so if you haven't been then I advise that you get yourself a pen & paper!

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.








Monday, 25 January 2010

PleasureLand -Little Apples Will Grow Again Collage-Painting




This is a collage-painting that I completed a while back & it's only now that I've had photos of the full painting to show you.

'Pleasure Land-Little Apples Will Grow Again'

Handpainted detailing ,houses, trees,balloon ,apple,swirl design etc & then I've used 1917 music manuscript, 1950's magazine images ,old tea-stained lace,string and various other ephemera to create a concept randomly reflecting the world's general 'mood' so to speak,- a melting post of notions loosely as so..

Burst Balloon..it's all hot air...the bubble has burst The Church Café (detail)...solice...or not. Madonna and Apple(Centre detail panel)...The Big Apple (centre)..Stockmarket Crash...Forbidden Fruit...Man on Bended Knee(centre detail)..'what MORE can I do? Help me? Why? Now All are Sleeping (Houses) Burying our heads? Resting..waiting 'til all is calm?...recovering? Time...out of-? In-? -left?
Soul..depth
Love...strength
It's inevitable...that Little Apples Will Grow Again










Thursday, 14 January 2010

Petite Suite de Concert











Goodt eeeven..ing...(in a Boris Karloff voice),
This is a piece I've just finished called
'~*'Petite Suite de Concert,
The Land of Children's Dreams'*~
An assemblage-painting into which I've incorporated 60 year old lace from an dress that is 'breaking ' at this stage!, an antique German porcelain doll's head, wire, and 1924 music manuscript -all within a gold painted wooden frame with linen inset,handpainted form phew! oh yeah the caption reads
' come along you little ones,come along with me; And we'll float in a boat made of bright moonbeams, to the land of children's dreams'
It is the same style,using same pose ('cos I like it!lol) as a previous piece 'When Your Talking Machine Glides' posted a few weeks ago (now sold). I'm doing a series of these dancing clowns. This is the second in the collection.