The Happy-haps...

So, I hear you cry (not out loud obviously, but in your head... yep, I can hear your thoughts.... you perv), what is this 'PeaRafflePie' business? That's a stupid name! Well yes, yes it is. But then, so is 'Randy', and that's still (somewhat) acceptable in polite society.

PeaRafflePie is my attempt to simplify / phoneticize/ rip-off 'PreRaphaelite', which is the name of the art movement simplified / influencized / ripped-off in my work. The PreRaphaelite Brotherhood was a collective of artists, poets and general thinkers founded in 1848. Originally consisting of good-time geezers William Holman Hunt, John Everett Millais and Dante Gabriel Rossetti, the group eventually swelled to a seven-member Victorian dandy posse. Their motivation was to put the elegance, magic, romance and classical...ness back into art, which at the time had become somewhat mechanical and saturated with gloomy paintings of factories and poor people gnawing on stale loaves of bread. The name 'PreRaphaelite' referred to a desire to return to an era uninfluenced by Raphael, who though superhumanly talented apparently smelled of wee. I can't say I share this belief, I personally think Raphael was a pretty swell dude. They also objected to the influence of Sir Joshua Reynolds, the founder of the English Royal Academy of Arts; calling him 'Sir Sloshua'. See what they did there? Ha, in yo face, Joshy-boy!

Anyhoo, together they tried to explore their disparate loves of medieval culture and the principles of Realism. This worked for a little while, but eventually saw them all grow apart like teenage lovers studying at different colleges. Who knows, maybe the brotherhood could have lasted longer if they'd only had Facebook back then, or if Rossetti hadn't have joined Alpha Sigma Delta and discovered beer bongs. (Just kidding, that didn't happen.)

But their influence went on through the generations and inspired later artists such as Edward Burne-Jones, John Brett, Philip Calderon, Arthur Hughes, Gustave Moreau, Evelyn De Morgan, Frederic Sandys and John William Waterhouse (my personal fave... love 'im). My work came about when, looking for something to try out my new acrylic paints on, I spotted my postcard-book of Waterhouse paintings and decided to copy a lady from a painting. Although, being crafty-like, I didn't necessarily choose the focal lady of the piece. When I'd built up a collection of these assorted cloth-draped ladies I decided to superimpose them onto photos (thus blending old and new; PreRaphaelite styley). I then manipulated the colours in the photos to compliment the painted ladies; elevating them from 'bit players' in the original paintings to determiners of their new compositions. Does any of that make sense? It does to me. Oh well, have a look if you like and see for yourself.

'A Tale From The Decameron' by J.W. Waterhouse