Myles Antony: Soft Focus Imagery

Myles Antony was born and raised in Dublin, where he studied art under the noted Irish painter, Fergus O'Ryan. While still in his teens, Myles moved to - what was then - 'Swinging London'.

Within a short period of time he joined the John Stephen Organisation, founders of the Carnaby Street phenomenon, becoming Art Director after a few years. When the whiz kids of Carnaby Street grew up, Myles moved on to Graphic Design, creating TV logos, record sleeves and movie posters. In 1985 he held his first solo exhibition at the Edinburgh Festival, which was a great success.

 

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Since then he has exhibited yearly at Adonis Art. Together with publications of Myles' work as greetings cards and limited editions, exhibitions have also been held in Amsterdam at the famed Rob Gallery and in Berlin at the Mr B. Gallery.

His works were also selected for exhibition at the Royal Hibernian Academy, Dublin, in 1990.

Myles Antony has broken barriers in his bold approach to the use of watercolour, being true to, and in great control of, the medium. The colours he uses, the delicate lines, the soft focus imagery, give his work character and vision. With keenly observed figures in search of an erotic ID, each and every one is a portrait of a real person. The paintings are at times daring and amusing, but always warm and human.

http://www.adonisartgallery.com/Myles-Antony-_c_47-1-0.html

More Artists at my website: http://www.elisarolle.com/, My Ramblings/Art

The Rainbow Awards: First Week Results

Here is a little summary at the end of the first week of the Rainbow Awards. Remember, these are only partial results, Phase 1 and Phase 2, during which you can vote all the books and as many books as you want, will last for all October, so you have still time. This is more a reminder, and the evidence of which Categories survived at this moment: categories with few or none votes were compacted in one category and some were deleted (at least for now, but I don't believe we will have so many new title submissions to make them survive).

This phase is a popularity contest, so I'm not so surprise that there are some dark horses I wouldn't expcted to see, but please remember, if you want for the Awards to have credibility, don't cheat ;-) Till now you were good, I noticed only some strange votes appear and only some strange accounts, but remember, I'm checking and I can be very strict in making you oblige to the few rules.

So, enjoy the first week results, and tomorrow I will post the Jury: the Jury will have the hard task to confirm or complete these results and in the end, to award the all togheter winner.

( First Week Results )

The Rainbow Awards: First Week Results

Here is a little summary at the end of the first week of the Rainbow Awards. Remember, these are only partial results, Phase 1 and Phase 2, during which you can vote all the books and as many books as you want, will last for all October, so you have still time. This is more a reminder, and the evidence of which Categories survived at this moment: categories with few or none votes were compacted in one category and some were deleted (at least for now, but I don't believe we will have so many new title submissions to make them survive).

This phase is a popularity contest, so I'm not so surprise that there are some dark horses I wouldn't expcted to see, but please remember, if you want for the Awards to have credibility, don't cheat ;-) Till now you were good, I noticed only some strange votes appear and only some strange accounts, but remember, I'm checking and I can be very strict in making you oblige to the few rules.

So, enjoy the first week results, and tomorrow I will post the Jury: the Jury will have the hard task to confirm or complete these results and in the end, to award the all togheter winner.

( First Week Results )

Join Tom Dolby at Books Inc. Opera Plaza in San Francisco!

If you are in the San Francisco Bay Area, join Tom Dolby next week, on Friday, October 16, for a reception at Books Inc. Opera Plaza (601 Van Ness Avenue, San Francisco). There will be a reception from 5:30pm-7pm and then he’ll be heading over to be part of the Teenquake event at the San Francisco Public Library (100 Larkin Street at Grove).



Tom Dolby is sponsoring is latest book, Secret Society, just out September 2009 with HarperTeen: Secrets, secrets are no fun. Secrets, secrets hurt someone... An eccentric new girl. A brooding socialite. The scion of one of New York's wealthiest families. A promising filmmaker. As students at the exclusive Chadwick School, Phoebe, Lauren, Nick, and Patch already live in a world most teenagers only dream about. They didn't ask to be Society members. But when three of them receive a mysterious text message promising success and fame beyond belief, they say yes to everything—even to the harrowing initiation ceremony in a gritty warehouse downtown and to the ankh-shaped tattoo they're forced to get on the nape of their necks. Once they're part of the Society, things begin falling into place for them. Week after week, their ambitions are fulfilled. It's all perfect—until a body is found in Central Park with no distinguishing marks except for an ankh-shaped tattoo.

Tom Dolby makes his teen fiction debut with this riveting novel about a dangerous society so secret that once you get in, you can never get out.

Tom Dolby is the author of the novels The Sixth Form and The Trouble Boy. He was born in London, raised in San Francisco, and now divides his time between Manhattan's West Village and Wainscott, New York. He is a graduate of Yale University, where he received his BA in the history of art. This is his first book for young adults.

Join Tom Dolby at Books Inc. Opera Plaza in San Francisco!

If you are in the San Francisco Bay Area, join Tom Dolby next week, on Friday, October 16, for a reception at Books Inc. Opera Plaza (601 Van Ness Avenue, San Francisco). There will be a reception from 5:30pm-7pm and then he’ll be heading over to be part of the Teenquake event at the San Francisco Public Library (100 Larkin Street at Grove).



Tom Dolby is sponsoring is latest book, Secret Society, just out September 2009 with HarperTeen: Secrets, secrets are no fun. Secrets, secrets hurt someone... An eccentric new girl. A brooding socialite. The scion of one of New York's wealthiest families. A promising filmmaker. As students at the exclusive Chadwick School, Phoebe, Lauren, Nick, and Patch already live in a world most teenagers only dream about. They didn't ask to be Society members. But when three of them receive a mysterious text message promising success and fame beyond belief, they say yes to everything—even to the harrowing initiation ceremony in a gritty warehouse downtown and to the ankh-shaped tattoo they're forced to get on the nape of their necks. Once they're part of the Society, things begin falling into place for them. Week after week, their ambitions are fulfilled. It's all perfect—until a body is found in Central Park with no distinguishing marks except for an ankh-shaped tattoo.

Tom Dolby makes his teen fiction debut with this riveting novel about a dangerous society so secret that once you get in, you can never get out.

Tom Dolby is the author of the novels The Sixth Form and The Trouble Boy. He was born in London, raised in San Francisco, and now divides his time between Manhattan's West Village and Wainscott, New York. He is a graduate of Yale University, where he received his BA in the history of art. This is his first book for young adults.

Year Of The Cat by Selah March

There is a bit of Cinderfella, a bit of The Beauty and the Beast, and yes, also a bit of the Puss in Boots, all mixed together in a resulting tale that is a winning formula. Often I read historical fantasy tale, but most of the time they have not originality, they are only a way to tell a story of man love in frilly garments without the burden to do an historical accurate research. in Year of the Cat, Selah March is not trying to masquerade an historical tale with the fantasy freedom, she wants to tell you a fairy tale, a naughty fairy tale, and she reaches her purpose.

Etienne is the third and favorite son of an old merchant. His father always sheltered him from his older brothers and from the outside world. It's not that Etienne is dumb, it's only that he has a gentle soul and a tendency to obey if commanded, and not willingness to rebel. His father knows that, once he dies, Etienne will not survive at his brothers' rage and tells Etienne to run away, in a isolated cottage in the forest. To this exchange there is a witness, a silver cat.

The cat, that Etienne will call Jacques, is a cursed man. More than 50 years before he was cursed by a witch and now he doesn't remember anything of his previous life, he behaves more like a beast than a man, even when he is in his human form. Jacques is damned to be a cat by day and a man by night. And like a cat, he is drawn by pretty things, things with which he wants to play. At first he thinks Etienne being an angel, someone who will surely help him to break the curse. But when he realizes that Etienne is only an innocent boy, he changes his plans: Jacques will play with Etienne, he will use him for his pleasure, always treating him like a precious thing, his precious toy.

And so it's, the relationship between Jacques and Etienne is very strange, their sexual intercourse edges on pain, but then Jacques is always careful to provide Etienne with everything he needs, a shelter, food, books, even music papers. Only that Etienne has to behave, he is Jacques' property, more his slave than his master, even if Jacques tells people that Etienne is a wealthy marquis, and Jacques is his manservant.

It's strange, there is obviously a BDSM tone in the story, but more than a modern thing dipped in a fantasy context, I see Jacques' behavior like something I would expect from a cat, being jealous and protective at the same time of the things he loves. Even the play with knives I found very right, have you ever seen a cat playing with a bird or a mouse he caught? They can be very cruel. So yes, the BDSM tone sounds very good in this fantasy tale, and it didn't ring wrong as other time similar tale did.

And a nice surprise was also Etienne: in many fairy tale, the damsel in distress is not exactly a clever woman... Cinderella, Belle, and other colleagues, if not for the help of some fairy godmother or divine intervention, they were more sacrificial lambs than real heroines. Instead Etienne, even if debauched innocent, has an inner strength that will help him by his own. Etienne is not, and will never be, a leader or a fighter, at least not with his fists, but he is clever, and above all he is in love. But even if in love, he knows where to rely his trust, not on his brothers, or on a wealthy patron... even if in rags and scruffy, his cat / man is the right one. And to add a point to Etienne's cleverness, it didn't take him long to realize that the silver cat Jacques was the same man who appeared to him one night, barely few hours... I do think Belle took longer to find out who the Beast was!

http://www.amberquill.com/AmberAllure/YearCat.html

Amazon Kindle: Year Of The Cat

The Rainbow Awards: First Week results: http://elisa-rolle.livejournal.com/811346.html

Year Of The Cat by Selah March

There is a bit of Cinderfella, a bit of The Beauty and the Beast, and yes, also a bit of the Puss in Boots, all mixed together in a resulting tale that is a winning formula. Often I read historical fantasy tale, but most of the time they have not originality, they are only a way to tell a story of man love in frilly garments without the burden to do an historical accurate research. in Year of the Cat, Selah March is not trying to masquerade an historical tale with the fantasy freedom, she wants to tell you a fairy tale, a naughty fairy tale, and she reaches her purpose.

Etienne is the third and favorite son of an old merchant. His father always sheltered him from his older brothers and from the outside world. It's not that Etienne is dumb, it's only that he has a gentle soul and a tendency to obey if commanded, and not willingness to rebel. His father knows that, once he dies, Etienne will not survive at his brothers' rage and tells Etienne to run away, in a isolated cottage in the forest. To this exchange there is a witness, a silver cat.

The cat, that Etienne will call Jacques, is a cursed man. More than 50 years before he was cursed by a witch and now he doesn't remember anything of his previous life, he behaves more like a beast than a man, even when he is in his human form. Jacques is damned to be a cat by day and a man by night. And like a cat, he is drawn by pretty things, things with which he wants to play. At first he thinks Etienne being an angel, someone who will surely help him to break the curse. But when he realizes that Etienne is only an innocent boy, he changes his plans: Jacques will play with Etienne, he will use him for his pleasure, always treating him like a precious thing, his precious toy.

And so it's, the relationship between Jacques and Etienne is very strange, their sexual intercourse edges on pain, but then Jacques is always careful to provide Etienne with everything he needs, a shelter, food, books, even music papers. Only that Etienne has to behave, he is Jacques' property, more his slave than his master, even if Jacques tells people that Etienne is a wealthy marquis, and Jacques is his manservant.

It's strange, there is obviously a BDSM tone in the story, but more than a modern thing dipped in a fantasy context, I see Jacques' behavior like something I would expect from a cat, being jealous and protective at the same time of the things he loves. Even the play with knives I found very right, have you ever seen a cat playing with a bird or a mouse he caught? They can be very cruel. So yes, the BDSM tone sounds very good in this fantasy tale, and it didn't ring wrong as other time similar tale did.

And a nice surprise was also Etienne: in many fairy tale, the damsel in distress is not exactly a clever woman... Cinderella, Belle, and other colleagues, if not for the help of some fairy godmother or divine intervention, they were more sacrificial lambs than real heroines. Instead Etienne, even if debauched innocent, has an inner strength that will help him by his own. Etienne is not, and will never be, a leader or a fighter, at least not with his fists, but he is clever, and above all he is in love. But even if in love, he knows where to rely his trust, not on his brothers, or on a wealthy patron... even if in rags and scruffy, his cat / man is the right one. And to add a point to Etienne's cleverness, it didn't take him long to realize that the silver cat Jacques was the same man who appeared to him one night, barely few hours... I do think Belle took longer to find out who the Beast was!

http://www.amberquill.com/AmberAllure/YearCat.html

Amazon Kindle: Year Of The Cat

The Rainbow Awards: First Week results: http://elisa-rolle.livejournal.com/811346.html