The Naked Silo

15" x 22", watercolour, 2016 The outfit Ashley's wearing here is the same one as in Embroidering the Truth  (a peasant dress from the Opera Carmen, which I had access to when I worked as a costumer for Malabar's Opera Department last decade). Speaking of Carmen, I've painted Ashley wearing the actual and gorgeous Carmen dress several times: in a mock-up poster for the opera; a mural in a café in Picton; a monochromatic experiment  in oils; my big  Silver Jubilee  painting; and a rather absurdly illustrative painting with elements from the opera itself. I guess, technically, the stars should be out of focus like the background foliage because of the implied shallow depth of field...but if it's okay in a few shots in the Emperor's throne room in Return of the Jedi... (only Palpatine should be in focus here)

I mention in  this post  how I was fascinated with models since I was a very young boy in the mid-'70s, but I didn't get around to actually building any until the '90s. This A-Wing wasn't the first model I ever built, but it's the only early one (circa late 1993) that I've photographed, so far.  They're fairly easy to miss in  Return of the Jedi , but I collected the trading cards and magazines so I was keenly aware of this new and interesting ship (the new B-Wing was okay, but I preferred the compact, yet sporty, look of this one). In 1993 I was playing the  X-Wing video game  where you can fly and X-Wing, Y-Wing, and an A-Wing, and while I very much liked the other two ships (I just finished building a 1/72 scale Y-Wing, in fact), I was impressed with the speed and agility of  the mighty A-Wing .  One night I was out with friends and we stepped into a hobby shop and, as soon as I saw this MPC kit I knew I had to bui...