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

Is it a mutant? Is it an alien? It's an octopus - or is it?

Have you ever thought how strange a creature the octopus is?  This week's fascination started when I asked the question, "What colour is an octopus when it's underwater?"  The answer is  "any colour it wants to be " -  An octopus' coloration depends upon its surroundings.  An octopus possesses the ability to alter its coloration depending on its immediate environment. This defensive technique protects the animal from predators and entices prey to come close to the animal . ((from  https://www.reference.com/pets-animals/color-octopus-be94f74fcdc74ebe)    . Why did I want to know the colour of an octopus? Because I wanted to draw octopus tentacles as mermaid hair for my art journal! Then, I began to think it might be considered a little too weird and even perverse to give a mermaid octopus hair.... Facebook friends assured me that this was not so, citing Medusa and her snake hair as a precedent, and even one friend said that she thought it was l...

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...

Lilly Pilly

Today is Australia Day. I chose a photo of some Lilly Pilly berries as a celebratory image for this national day. Lilly Pilly is  a common name for a plant, Syzygium smithii which grows mostly in Eastern Australia, from the northern  rain forests of Queensland, throughout NSW to the southern Wilson's Promontory in Victoria. In New Zealand it is called "monkey apple, but other names used in Australia, besides lilly pilly, are Eungella Gum and Coast Satinash. The largest Lilly Pilly recorded was found in Dingo Creek Flora Reserve, near Tenterfield where I once lived.  The tree now growing in my garden was once a small seedling which I was gifted when I left Woolgoolga, a small coastal town in northern NSW. Its name  is said to come from the Aboriginal word 'weelgoolga' describing the lilly pilly which grows in profusion there. It is probably no surprise that the lilly pilly berries are edible as bush tucker, and make a beautiful jam or jelly. I have even seen re...