New Year Greetings from a "Corsairette"

Many of my regular visitors will recall that this time last year I posted a feature on a lost masterpiece by my namesake Sir Joshua Gregg RA. See A Corsairette for Christmas

Well, my blog post must have stirred up the watching aristocracy to search their dusty attics or basements for their (not-so?) illustrious  ancestors' hidden chatels. Another one, presumably from Sir Josh's 1780 under-cover trip across the channel. Nothing much is known about this one, recently emerging from an estate in Derbyshire which must remain nameless........so we have to guess.

Apart from the obvious naval garb - the gold lace on her tricorn suggests an officer, and the shipboard setting, we note the initials on a barrel - which could be "DA" for Capitaine Julienne's corsair brig "La Dauphine Amusante". Also in Josh's usual fashion he managed to work the lady's name somewhere into the scene, in this case on the barrel at right foreground. So we could call her Lieutenant Polina. With a name like that I'd like to think, despite that cute face, she is really a hard bitten Ukrainian pirate lady. Probably recruited by Julienne due to her experience and to help keep the crew, and those visiting merchants referred to in the previous blog, in order.

Lieutenant Polina - original painting in Acrylic on canvas 10 inches x 8 inches

It's not known if Sir Josh stayed long enough on board La Dauphine Amusante to go on a voyage, or merely painted crew members while in port. Such records as exist hint he might have even met on board some representatives of the French Government for "secret" talks on behalf of The Admiralty and the Diplomatic Service. That's why the need for the paintings as cover, as well as salacious art work to pay off those back home who turned a "blind eye". Whether this trip had anything to do with the French decision to side with the Americans in their Revolution we may never know......  As a mere artist I'm just wondering if you can get such a bright looking sunny day in a channel port? Or is it artistic licence?

......thought my military minded followers might like a closer look at the ....ummm...... weapons

I've continued to use this story again this year to do this small painting as my annual military pinup for a  Christmas card. Many of my wargaming buddies and military art clients will have received one. I hope you (and they) like it. Last year one client suggested the pirate theme was worth expanding so I had the opportunity in the Summer to work with a professional model who gets what I'm trying to do and loves to model exotic subjects. We had a fun day in the sunshine on various 18th Century themes and I've got lots of new reference material , including 5 different pirate ladies.

The set below gives a very quick idea of the art process I've been developing lately, involving Artificial Intelligence (AI).  At left is my model, Jo,  in a super confident naval officer pose - minus jacket! Her sword is elsewhere from other posing. I ran this as a prompt through an AI system with some suitably descriptive words. I tried lots of variations, and you can see this system (Nightcafe) wants to sanitise and cover the naughty parts. The next picture is my preferred AI result and I thought the face was suitably playful for a greetings card. The system was having a great time interpreting my photo as a formal garden with a boat and sail in it!! Who says it's "intelligent".  Well actually along the way I got lots more bits of costume and ship parts and I put them together with Photoshop to arrive at the mockup seen in the third photo.  The essence of it is still the majestic pose of Jo but enhanced. So the fourth picture is my finished painting, though a rather dull rendition in that reproduction. It's got a certain vibrancy in the original that does not reproduce easily at this scale.

"French" Naval Lieutenant Polina is my second "corsairette", and Number 38 in the general "Hussarette" series. She is for sale priced at £80 so please get in touch if you are interested, or wish to purchase or discuss any of my other work. 

I can be contacted through the Contact page in my Art website here

or have a look at more of my Hussarettes and Military art 

Military

Hussarettes

And now another idea to see if it appeals.

Fancy an original painting of a nice lady in uniform playing with your own .....toys?

Well I got mine out and Jo was happy to take up lots of poses as both officer and musketeer across the wargames table with part of my 28mm Seven Years War collection 

Mousquetaire Joleen behind the Hanoverian army

Colonel Joleen about to move some of the French army

Game underway getting a bit more into the mood!!!
 - a forward observer?

I also did a couple of sets around a wargames table with another model - as a Napoleonic Hussarette and a Zouavette of 1860 - 1870 period, so I have loads of interesting material from which to make paintings

and I don't need to be restricted to just these periods. Let your imaginations go and contact me if you have an idea you'd like to commission - either with your own models (the miniature ones) or my set up. Faces of course can be used to suit your taste, I can even put you in the picture too if so desired.

For more of the charming model Jo, please see the links to various social media and professional sites she appears on from her Linktree page. And if you feel like supporting her work financially there are opportunities there. I do recommend the "Admire Me" site in particular.

FINALLY - a heartfelt thanks for another year of great support for this blog. I really do appreciate you taking the time to look at the pics, read my descriptions and follow stories and the wargame AARs. In particular it's great if you can comment in some way - like all bloggers I like to know what you think and to know there are folks out there who like, or get inspiration from, my efforts.

HAPPY NEW YEAR