Due to incestuous breeding practices between many of the European royal houses over the last few centuries, poor Otto here has an unprecedented cross to bear which could have only come about due to these bizarre and ultimately unhealthy practises.
The problem arises due to the fact that poor Otto is now the king of four different European countries. Don’t ask me how this happened but I believe it has something to do with some arcane royal protocols that no one thought to have a look at and change.
If that wasn’t enough poor Otto was born with eyes that some in private circles have called bug-like and a head that is as flat as a tabletop. Now, this wouldn’t be too much of an issue apart from when it comes to making sure his crowns stay firmly in place…
It is painted on 60×60 cm canvas and made using the magic of inspiration, acrylic, pastel and spray paint.
You’ve heard of Tupac? Well here we’ve got Tenpac. The origins of Tenpac Shakir remain a mystery, even to us, who (assumably) created him.
He was just there one morning after an evening which ended in an agreeable state of inebriation. We felt he was too bad to live but too young to die so we decided the only decent thing to do was leave him on the street to fend for himself. The hanging 10 pack sign is a nice touch that we somehow pulled off pretty well all things considering…
You know those rare occasions when you’re on tip top form and nothing can possibly stand in your way? You may even be in just your underwear like our celebrant.
Well, we thought we’d try and impart that feeling of ‘looking good, feeling good and talking fun stuff’ into as many people as possible with this placement. A bus stop seemed as good a place as any. If it brings just one smile to one face then I figure we’ve won. I can’t imagine this one will last very long in situ however…
After sleeping quietly in the corner of the studio for a couple of years it was time for Darren here to hit the streets. He’s been dreaming of busier times which have never quite materialised. Life is harsh Darren my friend…
He’s on plywood, was pretty tricky to produce and comes complete with lots of small nails and thread around the lettering. What on earth was I thinking? I can’t imagine what will become of him with all the sleeping he does but wish him all the best.
Karen has always had a squiffy eye and doctors have told her that she can have surgery to have it corrected if she wants but she’s never wanted to have it done and never will. She likes the fact that people find it off-putting and when talking to her just don’t know which way to look. Karen also has a knack to roll her bad eye into the back of her head to really hit it home.
Through the years people have called her many names due to her affliction but one that has stuck because Karen liked it herself was ‘Ambly’. Karen also has a skill which is a direct cause of her wonky eye: she can tell if anything is squiffy even by the slightest degree with just a quick glance. Due to this many business sectors hold Karen in great demand for her unusual abilities. From the scientists at CERN to the builders of the worlds largest skyscrapers, to Tony from down Karen’s local pub who always asks her to see if he’s squiffy but Karen is always to polite to give him an answer. In all fairness everyone at the pub already knows the answer to that one…
So how do we start a write up about lady Cheltenham? Maybe its best to explain our monumental balls up that started it all.
There we were during the week looking at the weather forecast and lo and behold it forecast rain for the Saturday. This year our design consisted of quite a bit of emulsion so we thought it best to get an early start so that it wouldn’t run in the rain. So with as much preparation as we could muster we headed down on Friday to get an early start which we did with an ease that id-iom is known for.
When we got to the Frog and Fiddle is when the problems started. The wall that looked like the one we were painting hadn’t been painted white like the rest and it seemed a little wider than what we were expecting, so we asked the bar staff who pointed at another wall which we took for consent to paint. In hindsight this was probably not the best idea.
Lets move forward to Saturday lunchtime when we finally dragged ourselves out of bed after a few too many drinks the night before we set off back to the frog and fiddle to finish our piece but i think you can already guess we had painted the wrong wall. With a few expletives thrown about for our stupidity we set about trying to get the new wall finished before either the rain stopped play or the after party started.
Anyway what we have for our troubles is Lady Chelts
Thanks to Andy and Angela for once again putting on a wonderful festival. Onwards and upwards guys!!
Sunbathing has a bit of a bad rap these days. Nowadays people are more likely to use fake tan than actually sunbathe. This could probably be put down to the scientific evidence that prolonged exposure to UV rays and sunshine can cause skin cancer which absolutely no one wants at all. Tamara here however was never one to worry about such things and revels in the sun’s glorious rays.
‘Scorching’ is painted on a found table top that I came home with after wombling my way back from the pub late one night. Given the weight of it I’m still not sure how I managed it back home with it all by myself but somehow I clearly did. After painting the portrait I felt it needed a little more so after a quick ferret around in the miscellaneous art supplies box I came up with a chisel of sorts and some lighter fluid. A little hard work and some flambe action and the burned lettering was done. Then it was onto the question of how to stick some real sand to it…
One minute it was over, then suddenly under, then seemingly normal and all in the space of a 2 minute window. Smoky just didn’t know what to do. For a start he couldn’t think straight and even if he could he wouldn’t know what to do either. The only nugget of information that popped in to his dim head was ‘Stop, Drop and Roll!’ and with nothing else to check him he did just that.
He banged his head against the white padded wall and had a sudden moment of clarity before another rapid loss of function. Ol’ Smoky never was the same after he came across that bale of African Gunji 65 back in the day. Some say that if you look real close you can still see the smoke swirling around behind his eyes…
Created using the magic of smoke, pencils and paint pen after I’d seen a Youtube video showing a guy doing something similar. I quite like the way he turned out in the end.
Here at id-iom there are a few things we love. Sunny days. Painting. And dispensing wisdom. Today we have the opportunity to combine all three and ‘If you’re in a fair fight…’ is the result. The original inspiration for this design came from the Polish fighter squadrons of WW2 who escaped to Britain to fight alongside the RAF after Poland had been invaded. Somehow that nugget of inspiration morphed into this piece. The muse works in mysterious ways. Anyway, as long as you’re digging the sage advice this dashing pilot is dishing out then all should be well. Just remember, failing to plan is planning to fail.
He’s on A2 paper and is made using the magic of spraypaint, stencils and imagination. If you’d like to give him a new home then drop us a line.
The lady in this picture is what most people would call stand-offish or aloof and that is because she is. She just loves to look down on everyone and not just in a figurative sense but a literal sense as well.
When talking to her she looks down at you from a high angle due to her Amazonian height (and heels) but more importantly the sharp angle at which she keeps her head in relation to whoever she is talking to. She likes to think it creates the illusion of looking down at a miniature model just like in tilt shift photography.
To get the angle I wanted for this portrait I had to use every trick in my arsenal and resorted to painting her whilst balancing precariously at the top of the tallest ladder I could lay my hands on…
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