Wednesday, December 12, 2012

A 1970's John Blanche Original...sigh...



Sigh.  When it appeared on ebay a few weeks ago, I had no intention of ever actually attempting to get my hands on it...it was priced at about $800.00 and that was just too much.  Wistfully, I kept an eye on it...and began to have hope as, unbought, it dipped, week by week, from $800 to $700 to $600.00...When it fell, at last, into the $500 range, I began to make serious plans to recruit the wife's aid into making it a birthday present in the coming year...even sent the seller an offer...and then...at the last minute, somebody sniped it for $465.00. Looking back on it, $465.00 seems...very reasonable...if you happen to have an extra $500.00 laying around during the Christmas Season.  I should have just damned the torpedoes and gone for it...sold the dog or whatever it took to raise the cash...Regrets...I've had a few... 
 Sigh. This is really my favorite period by an illustrator I really love...flame-haired space girls in sky-high heels survey an alien landscape of strange green hills and silver water-falls...
There was no Warhammer, at this point, and Blanche was just wandering around in fantastic landscapes ...quite without rules...just doing what he felt...strange worlds and beautiful girls in...really impressive shoes.  It's reminiscent in many ways of Fantastic Planet, a film I really love, but it's far better...because it's Blanche.  Imagine a film like Fantastic Planet, but with Blanche at the helm...
  
 Sigh.  I try to comfort myself with considerations like...you know...even if I had bought it, it was a very small piece, only about 1 foot by 2 feet, so its not as if it would have dominated one wall of my library or anything...
 ...No, it's not working.  I'm depressed.
Sigh.

3 comments:

  1. No wonder - that's quite a painting!

    My commiserations.

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  2. Yeah, great taste, Mouse. This is wonderful. Heels and Alien landscapes, yes, yes. But I keep thinking what a fantastic album cover, or better yet, what a fantastic gatefold this would make! And hey, maybe there's a another Blanche around the bend...?

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  3. Hi Mouse, damn shame you missed that, but there will be another I'm sure. I agree with you about the pre-Warhammer Blanche. I used to spend hours looking at his paintings in Tolkien Bestiary, but I think it was his landsapes and towns I liked most. Weird moss covered hills, tottering houses with swags of lichen drooping down and little windows under the thatch. Of course he is still completely talented but fettered by GW Warhammer creations, which, lets face it are mainly ideas pinched off other people.

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