Skip to main content

Christmas Countdown Characters #17

It is not easy finding a Christmas celebrity whose name starts with Q ... so today I am featuring three! 


Q is for "Queen of Christmas", Quentin Blake and "Queen" the band. 


https://www.amazon.com 
1. Following on from Pollyanna yesterday, I  decided to feature another  fictional literary heroine,  the self-appointed Queen of Christmas, of the Ann Estelle stories by Mary Engelbreit. The Queen of Christmas  has been working on "The List" since just after Christmas last year. After all, if she forgets anything, "that would make Christmas not quite as wonderful as it should be." So, although she has a marvellous time ice-skating with Grandma, perhaps a sparkly red skating outfit would make it better. And going sledding with her father on his old wooden sled is great, but still, it might be nice to have a brand-new plastic one. In my illustration, the Queen of Christmas has a couple of things sorted - a "Special Dad " poster by Quentin Blake, and some song sheets of "Thank God It's Christmas" printed for her carolling on Christmas Eve! 


It might sound as though Ann Estelle  whose alias "Queen of Christmas" should really be called the Spoiled Princess of Christmas, but in truth, she’s just a normal little girl bedazzled by the "golden gift-getting opportunity" of Christmas. And--with no parental prodding whatsoever--our little heroine eventually realises that what she loves is the time spent with her family, not the gifts on the list, and  closes the story with the kind of moral every parent would like to hear: "Oh, Dad, it’s not just the presents that matter. Don’t you know that?"  

2. I couldn't omit Quentin Blake from this Christmas celebrity line up, so hence the earlier mention.  You may not know Quentin, but you know his work.  His Illustration style is highly recognisable. Quentin Blake, British illustrator famous for his illustrations of many of Roald Dahl's stories, The BFG, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, The Twits, Fantastic Mr Fox , Matilda and many many classics, including A Christmas Carol  
from https://www.quentinblake.com
Quenton's delightful Christmas illustrations for greeting cards have supported various charities, including Survive International, a support organization for tribal peoples.  Quentin is a long-standing supporter of numerous charities, some of which work to promote understanding and engagement in art and literacy, as well as organisations which support threatened peoples and animals across the globe.  I think my favourite small works of art by Quentin Blake are his series of Christmas stamps all, unmistakably his own style of humour and quirkiness. 

3. And if all that wasn't enough for "Q" here is Queen with their rendition of "Thank God It's Christmas!" 

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Christmas Countdown Characters #22

So close to Christmas and it's getting harder to find Christmas celebrities but today here's  a wily W character.  W is for Wilma . Yes I am Wilma but I am NOT today's Christmas celebrity.  Wilma the weasel  is the one of the main characters  in  T he Flight Before Christmas , a 2008 animated movie    and its sequel   Little Brother Big Trouble: A Christmas Adventure . The Flight Before Christmas centres around the problem of Niko, a small reindeer afraid of flying, and in search of his unknown father who is one of Santa's Flying Forces (that is, one of the eight main reindeer who pull Santa's sleigh)  Wilma is a street wise fearless singing weasel, who Niki and his surrogate squirrel father, Julius befriend while saving Santa from a wolf pack attack .   Long story short, the climax involves  Niko, Wilma and Julius killing the wolf leader, the Flying  Squad saving themselves in order to save Christmas, Niko...

Evolution of Message Stick Art Dolls

Message Stick Art Doll - stick, polymer clay, hand dyed & stencilled fabric with embroidery  My    message stick art dolls    have evolved over the last couple of years.  Why have I called these art dolls “Message Sticks” ?    I wanted to recreate a doll which was based on traditional techniques, so I have used ideas from a few different cultures. Many traditional dolls were made from wood - often wrapped with fibres.   In Egypt, several types of paddle dolls have been discovered in tombs in Egypt. The dolls are made of wood, flat, and constructed in a shape has led the form to be called a 'paddle doll'. The dolls seemingly follow a convention for the female figure, emphasizing the hips and hair. The wooden figures are usually painted with a geometric pattern of lines and dots. These patterns may reproduce tattos or ritual scaring in female Egyptian culture of the period or represent clothing or jewellery.  A fine exampl...

Entomological Elements - Mixed Media Sculpture

Entomological Elements hung in Timeless Textiles Gallery.  My latest big piece of work is "Entomological Elements" - let's call it EE ... It is a mixed media sculpture in response to the theme "Elements" for a current exhibition by the Newcastle Creative Embroiderers and Textile Artists. If you a regular reader of this blog or and Empress Wu Designs Facebook follower, you probably know that my thing is "stick dolls".... dolls made with sticks. EE is just an extension of those , with a piece of local driftwood as its base. EE is also   a celebration of the natural elements depicted by insects from different parts of the world.   EARTH - Common Black Ground Beetle ( Pterostichus melanarius ) - Europe/Eurasia AIR - Blue Ulysses Butterfly ( Papilio Ulysses ) - Australia WATER - Golden winged skimmer dragonfly ( Libellula auripennis ) - Central/North America FIRE - Scarlet Fire Beetle ( Pyrochroa coccinea )- Europe Common Black ...