Month: October 2024

‘Starry night pumpkins’ amateur pub painting

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Hi everyone ☺️ My latest UnicornPostbox blog post is progression photos of an amateur ‘Starry Night’ Van Gogh inspired Halloween 🎃 pub painting… hope you like!

First of all, we outlined with watery brown acrylic paint the soon to become pumpkins 🎃 and painted the entire background a deep blue. We then created and built up the white flowing central star swirl, and circular star swirls, in inspiration of Van Gogh’s original dreamlike etheral night sky, stars and moon🌙 We then used neon pain to paint the pumpkins bright neon orange, and neon yellow in the sky / creating detail on the pumpkins 🎃 It was brilliant when we turned the lights off to see the fluorescent colours! We incorporated the black cypress tree, symbolic some say Van Gogh’s mental state (he painted Starry Night in an asylum after he mutilated his left ear) and a little more definition to the pumpkins, white, brown and back subtle strokes, and here is the finished piece:

I really enjoyed this one, I love the effect of the swirling sky in contrast to the bright bold neon pumpkins 🎃

The next pub painting is our Christmas 🎄 ‘Winter fox’ in December. I am also on with a new turtle 🐢 diamond art, and I am going to a few pantomimes in the next couple of months… also, I’m going to see the ‘Nutcracker’ ballet with my auntie 💓 I’m so excited because I have always wanted to see a ballet.. so yes, please keep a look out for future posts…

Many thanks as always for reading/viewing, love Lauren xx

https://www.vangoghgallery.com/painting/starry-night.html [Accessed 30th October 2024]

© 2024 Lauren Parr/ https://unicornpostbox.com

‘Anything for Love’ Meatloaf tribute, theatre review

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Yesterday I went with one of my best friends Lou and her family to see Steve Steinman’s ‘Anything for Love’ meatloaf tribute show at Cast theatre, Doncaster, it was amazing! 😁

Steinman is a very successful director, producer, actor and singer, with a vast fan base. He has performed all around the world. Notably, ‘Vampires Rock’ is in it’s 20th anniversary tour, a huge success for Steinman, proving massively popular, a blend of classic rock, and tounge-in-cheek hilarity, with incredible musicians. Also, his debut number one album ‘Take a Leap of Faith’, released August 2021, dominated charts. The songwriter John Parr (no I’m not related to him!) listened to Steinman’s album, and felt like it was destined for Steinman to sing one of Meatloaf’s ‘lost’ songs (never released) ‘Eveything They Said was True’. Furthermore, Steinman’s new musical masterpiece ‘Eternal Love’ hits the theatres next year! I am so excited to go as a birthday celebration in March! My cousin told me how amazing ‘Vampires Rock’ is, so I can’t wait to stick my teeth into ‘Eternal Love’ ❤️❤️

I was most familiar with songs 🎵 from the legendary ‘Bat out of Hell’ album, but there were a couple I was unfamiliar with. To add a bit of variety, the girl backing singers sang ‘Holding out for a Hero’ by Bonnie Tyler, and ‘All Coming Back to Me’ by Celine Dion, for example, Trixabelle Bold and Ashley Cavell, they were outstanding singers! Greg Morton however on the piano absolutely blew me away! He was exceptionally talented, along with the other musicians, Johnny Sax on the saxophone, Dan Stevens, James Marsh and Joe Brierley on the guitars/bass guitar 🎸 And not to forget John Evans, a terrific backing vocalist.. The staging was epic, with all the instruments and balls of fire gushing up 🔥

Some of my favourite songs were ‘I Would do Anything for Love (But I Won’t do That’, ‘Two out of Three Ain’t Bad’, ‘Dead Ringer for Love’ ‘Heaven Can Wait’, ‘Paradise by the Dashboard Light’, ‘You Took the Words Right out of My Mouth’ and of course the magnificent ‘Bat out of Hell’ 🦇🦇 I was swaying and happily singing along 😁😁 It reminded me of when me and my late mum went to see ‘Bat out of Hell’ the musical in London, 2018, before she got too poorly. She was bobbing along merrily too to all the songs then too! 🎵 Me and my sister grew up with Meatloaf, he was one of mum’s favourites 😍 Rather than feeling sad, I actually felt comforted and connected to mum, hoping she was at peace and looking down on me 🥰🥰

So, yes, a fantastic performance 👏 and I will definitely get booked up for ‘Eternal Love’ at Cast next spring. I am also going to the pantomime at Christmas time ,which I believe this year is ‘Jack and the Beanstalk’ and I will support the little theatre too at their festive ‘Cinderella’ production..

Thank you as ever for taking the time to view/read.. all the best, Lauren xx

© 2024 Lauren Parr/ https://unicornpostbox.com

‘Mystical mushrooms’ amateur pub painting

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Hi everyone! My latest UnicornPostbox blog post is progression photos of a mystical glow in the dark mushroom painting 💕💕 hope you enjoy! 🍄🍄

We started off colouring the entire background a dark blue, then lightly painting the mushroom outlines in white, building up the stem with more white to create depth. Green and neon yellow for the grassy area, then painting the caps a deep red. The next step was to add a little sparkle to the sky, and a crescent moon🌙 It was amazing the neon colours when we turned the lights off! Glowing fluorescently, especially the white/neon yellow spots. I added more neon, but also outlined the entire subjects with black, and highlighted more with white…and this is the finished product:

I really enjoyed this one! I realise I am not the best painter in the world but I thoroughly enjoy it so that’s all that matters 💕💕 Usually my friend Denise comes with me to pub painting, but this was an extra session at potteric Carr nature reserve Denise couldn’t make. I have never actually been before but it’s beautiful 😍 I bought a little mushroom snow globe from their gift shop to support them. We also got a free hot drink and cake! So it was really nice..

We have booked up for the Halloween 🎃 and Christmas 🎄 pub paintings. I also have a turtle 🐢 diamond art to start, and I am thinking of doing another celebrity pencil portrait, maybe Keane Reeves. I have a lot of respect for him he is a wonderful person 🥰🥰…

Thank you as always for taking the time to read/view. Lots of love, Lauren xx

© 2024 Lauren Parr/ https://unicornpostbox.com

‘Pretty peacock’ diamond art

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Hi everyone! My latest UnicornPostbox blog post is progression photos of a diamond art peacock 💎🎨 🦚 Hope you enjoy! 😊

It took me absolute weeks to complete this diamond art! It takes so long but is incredibly therapeutic. I am in love with the finished piece, with it’s gorgeous bright colours 🌈 and charming sophistication 😁

My next diamond art is a cute turtle 🐢 and the next pub painting is a Halloween themed Van Gogh starry night, but with pumpkins! 🎃 🎃

So keep a look out 😜😜

Thank you as ever for reading/viewing! Many thanks, Lauren xx

© 2024 Lauren Parr / https://unicornpostbox.com