Lost No More.

Website updated, Magazine available, New Lost Impossimal website with beginning chapters online and galleries up and down the country ready.

LOST ALICE

has arrived

See it first this weekend at Castle Galleries, Bluewater this Saturday 26th between 1-4pm and meet us both, we will also be bringing along originals, sketches and maquettes from the releases as well as our usual brand of Impossimalness!

See you soon!

 

www.petersmithcollective.co.uk Home Of Foreverbunny and the Impossimals

Molly Knickerelastics Rubber Pants

Ahh, it was the title that led you here wasn't it you dirty little minx!

For those of you that are new to this blog you probably think it only gets updated every once in a while, recent posts have been somewhat sparse. Normally the blog is updated five days a week with random guff and assorted stuff from my cluttered up attic of a brain but due to a series of events this year I have not been so diligent in keeping the useless banter up. So, from today, normal service will be resumed with a daily dose of weekday randomness.

I'm a weeks time we start the Lost Alice appearances along with the Car Park Picnics, and if you have never seen a car park picnic then stay tuned, we will bring you all the latest smelly car park reports live each week. Whilst you are waiting let's move along shall we?

Anyway, to kick things off with a multitude of blog entries here's a nice blast from the past to get you in the mood and a taster of the strangeness to come; The Pirate Pie Shoppe.

After having his galleon the Sloop Dog confiscated for firing a volley of sixty guns at a canal boat driven by an elderly couple in Norfolk Captn' Cannon Balls fell on hard times. Finally he managed to scrape up enough pieces of eight after pawning his parrot to open up a pie shop. We join Captn' Cannon Balls on the opening day of The Booty Pie.

In walks his first customer, a slim lady obviously wealthy.

'Ahoy me beauty, youre makin' my roger jolly. Can I interest you in a pie, it's chum free me darlin'

'Errr, I'm sorry, I think I'm in the wrong shop, didn't this used to be Molly's Haberdashery?'

'Aye! 'twas landlubber Molly's before, a fine beauty she was. I'd love to drop anchor in her lagoon'

'I beg your pardon?'

'All fresh me beauty, baked by my own fair hands did I. That's a treasure of a chest you have mind you'

'Hmm how crude, ok, what have you got?'

'I'd be 'avin a Salty Dog, a Beef Booty, a selection of Doubloon Rolls and a fine Minced Urchin Pasty'

'What's a Beef Booty? I'm unfamiliar with most of these pies.'

'It be 'avin beef in it.'

'Beef? What's the booty about then?'

'Booty is the other ingredient me beauty. Let me fire me cannon through your porthole.''

'Vile man, What other ingredient?'

Cough, 'Shark n'stuff'

'Shark!'

'Aye, n'stuff'

'What stuff?'

'It be nuthin to concern yourself with me beauty.'

'What stuff?'

Cough, 'Me first mate'

'Why you murderer! Police, police!'

'You'd not be needin' them me beauty, think of it like buried treasure. I never laid a finger on him'

'Then how did he get in the pie?'

'Shark ate him'

'Seriously? You expect me to believe that?'

'Smartly, me lass, he was mendin' me ship and the shark nabbed 'im'

'So what's in the Salty Dog then, dog?'

'Aye, that would be silly, it's Puffin'

'Puffin?'

'Aye, Puffin the cabin boy'

'Another murder! Help! Help!'

'Now don't be gettin' all haulin' keel, it was his suggestion'

'Oh my god, how can it be his suggestion?'

'He suggested he wanted to be captain of me vessel the Sloop Dog me lass'

'You have a boat?'

'Aye, I do me beauty'

'And is it big?'

'Aye, it's a sixty footer, a cannon for each foot and a crew of thirty bloodthirsty scallywags awaitin' adventure.'

'Hmm, do you have any treasure?'

'Alas no lass, but I have a map. It marks the spot of Great Blacklegs haul, booty beyond imaginin'

'That's a nice cutlass you have there.'

'Aye it is that lass'

'What you need is a good scabbard to put it in.'

'Pardon?'

'You heard me, come show me how you bury your treasure me lad'

'Hang on, I'm the pirate here.'

'Aye, let me scrape the barnacles off your rudder'

'Out! This is a respectable pie shop, out!'

'No need to get your yard arm in a twist, fancy going for a blackjack of grog later matey? I've crushed men's skulls between my thighs'

'Out, out, out!'

The lady leaves.

'Disgusting, absolutely disgusting. I'm not having any of that kind of filth in my shop'

In walks the next customer, a middle aged lady.

'Mornin' lass, yes it is a horn pipe in my pocket and i'm pleased to see you, if you want to see me urchins I'll show you a real yard arm to split your booty'

Sadly Captn' Cannon Balls Booty Pie shop closed down several days later after numerous complaints about suggestive behaviour and inappropriate swashbuckling. Further investigations revealed the Captn' to be a figment of the authors warped imagination just before he was fastened in a straight jacket and placed in a padded cell accompanied by the shouts of 'Prepare to be boarded me beauty' and 'I'll smash yer back doors in'. Psychology results still pending provided they can get him to stop typing random blog entries like this one.

www.petersmithcollective.co.uk Home Of Foreverbunny and the Impossimals

Lost Alice Appearance Dates

Well the Internet is finally installed and we can now achieve speeds of up to a staggering 32kbps placing us firmly in the digital age somewhere around 1992. Honestly, in a speed of smartphones, driverless cars, drones and ten second celebrities you would have thought it would have been an easy matter to get it all connected and fired up. Oh no, 27 days it took and still I have chance to go and make a cup of tea and watch a few programs before Google loads.

So things are a tad slow and I wish I was exaggerating but I'm not so if things take a little more time to appear and we don't seem as responsive to posts as we should be sorry 'bout that. Good news is, we have Lost Alice appearance dates, YAY!

All are welcome at ANY of the events listed below, the opening event at Bluewater will be the first time the entire collection will be on display and will include plenty of exclusive items for this opening show.

Castle Galleries, Bluewater Saturday 26th September 1-4pm

Castle Fine Art, Newcastle Saturday 3rd October 1-4pm

Castle Galleries, Solihull Saturday 10th October 1-4pm

Castle Galleries, Glasgow Saturday 17th October 1-4pm

Castle Fine Art, Edinburgh Sunday 18th October 1-4pm

The Original Art Shop, Hanley Saturday 24th October 12-3pm

Castle Galleries, Meadowhall Saturday 31st October 1-4pm

Castle Galleries, Chester Saturday 7th November 1-4pm

Castle Galleries, Cambridge Saturday 14th November 1-4pm

Castle Fine Art, Manchester Saturday 21st November 1-4pm

Castle Fine Art, Norwich Saturday 28th November 1-4pm

Castle Galleries, Trafford Centre Saturday 5th December 1-4pm

Hopefully many of you will be able to make it to one of the events, there are still a few more to pop in and I'll keep you up to date with those as soon as I get confirmation.

See you there!

 

www.petersmithcollective.co.uk Home Of Foreverbunny and the Impossimals

Ten Things To Consider When Moving House

1) Don't move, ever. If you hear the words conveyancing or mortgage then set fire to your pants, poke yourself in the eye or remove hair using pliers, under no circumstances consider moving unless you wish to endure week upon week of relentless pain.

2) Should you find yourself in the unfortunate position of moving then you require a removals company. These range from a small white van man with a dog called Colin (Colin refuses to lift heavy objects) to multinational companies that expect you to pack everything in square boxes so all they do is left for a few grand. We however choose a delightful option, mid range lorries with a rugby team (optional shared shower at the end)

3) Prepare to change address, most companies will provide facilities to do this whilst others will charge you for the privilege of daring to ask to change it. Expect to be charged anywhere up to £37.62 as we were which is a bit steep when you do it yourself on the Internet and some trainee the other end puts a stamp on an envelope to confirm. Unless of course you are changing address from Mansfield and you need to let a Mansfield company know, in that case you have to hand write a letter and post it recorded, they will then stamp it, make a duplicate, countersign it and write you a reply. None of the 'pop in and we will sort it for you' malarkey, you do it our way or no way.

4) Change of landline number. Be prepared to smash you head against the wall for several weeks as you wrestle with phone companies on the availability of the single engineer to come along and flip a switch for you. Apparently it takes a month, even though the phone line is installed, live with a dialling tone and is used by telemarketing companies to phone us at 2am in the morning to sell us PPI claims.

5) Moving day can be stressful, even more so when the chain you are in all get random bits of information that fails to match. It's awfully confusing when one completes and the other fail to get the same message, very soon a joyous day turns into a shambles as you fight over the keys.

6) The weather. Choose a fine day, not the absolutely miserable mother of a day they we ended up with that gave us 24 hours of non stop drizzle and around two tonnes of mud to swish around the house.

7) When buying a house consider a few things we had to take into account, first we are on a flood plane, secondly we are within range of a military shelling area, thirdly we are within range of a gas terminal that we have to register with in case it suddenly blows and they just find our teeth and last but not least check if you are within five metres of one of the last remaining 200 year old Elm trees in England and check that the seven directional tilt on the house is in fact quirky and not critical.

8) When viewing houses avoid places that bottle brown water and ask you to sample it, it's recycled urine as we found out when the tea tasted funny (seriously, it was wee)

9) Again, don't be misled, a swimming pool advertised that the owners bathed naked in and drank champagne actually turned out to be a children's inflatable paddling pool upon inspection.

10) Don't move.

 

www.petersmithcollective.co.uk Home Of Foreverbunny and the Impossimals

My Name Is Alice

Well, this is the first blog from the new Impossimal HQ studio and what a few weeks it has been. We still do not have the Internet, estimates is another two weeks so this is being typed and posted from an itsy-bitsy phone on an ever so weak signal from the bottom of the garden. It's no bad thing, although living without the Internet exposes quite a few limitations, no online banking, limited online grocery ordering, sparse photos of cats doing amusing things, the usual kind of thing.

So why the move? Well, for a start both of us working from a ten by ten shed was never going to last, too little space with plenty of colliding chairs and such and also the size of our artwork was severely limited, I really don't know how we have lasted nearly eleven years in such cramped conditions so out goes the shed and in its place a wonderful new studio space that's eleven by eleven. Only kidding, it's at least four times the size and fully insulated, even better it's in the middle of a special nowhere.

To move house we had to endure twelve weeks of upheaval which at times pushed us and at other times pleased us, either way we are here now and the Impossimals are about to make their biggest return yet.

Lost Alice, a collection and tour completed at the same time as moving, we worked from packed boxes, we worked sitting on crates, we did everything we could to make sure the collection had the minimum of upheaval although even that was difficult when we dismatled the old studio and had to work pretty much anywhere we could set up an easel.

This weekend sees the preview launch at the ICC in Birmingham in which galleries up and down the UK get to see the entire collection for the very first time. You will get to see it pretty soon after with little taster posts across the weekend. All this in preparation for the release of the tour dates where you can come along to various galleries and hear the stories, share your Alice enthusiasm and generally have a good time.

I have purposely kept a lot back from this tour and only let you know little snippets so a little more information wouldn't go amiss. To complete the pieces I had to write another Alice book, it will be available in a short abridged form and the full text will be available on our Lost Alice website a little later along with a lot of the background work. Incidentally ALL the Alice maquettes I created for this collection will also be available from the galleries on a first come, first served basis along with several rather detailed oil sketches and six originals. Jayne has also produced two new pieces to accompany the collection, both pretty stunning and unlike her previous work.

So all in all a busy weekend beckons so let me leave it to the Hatter to finish everything off, it's all going to get rather surreal...

The door blew open with such force that Alice tumbled to the floor, an angry roar came from inside and a billow of flame shot out and licked the sky, Alice rose to her feet only to see a world in turmoil through the door, a red land of volcanoes and arid earth, leaping fire pits and billowing smoke was all around and a tumultuous noise poured out.

"Who disturbs my sleep? Who wishes to feel my wrath? Who wishes to taste my fury!" boomed an unknown voice from out of the turmoil almost deafening Alice.

"Time to finish you!" shouted the Hatter quickly drawing out his knife and leaping towards Alice with an evil look in his eye.

"NO!" shouted Alice in horror as the Hatter, his knife raised high landed beside her, eye twirling furiously as he slammed the door shut and wedged his blade in the door frame to keep it closed.

"That was Anger," said the Hatter nonchalantly, "one of the seven deadly sins you left behind dear Alice, another is Sloth, he makes young girls fail to cut their hair."

 

www.petersmithcollective.co.uk Home Of Foreverbunny and the Impossimals

Move

You may have noticed that there has been little or scant posting of the blog and Impossimal stuff recently, it's not that I have been remiss it's all down to the fact that Impossimal HQ is relocating which unfortunately occurred at the same time as we lost Iona, one of our quirky three continental giant rabbits who live at Bunnyopolis.

So Bunnyopolis 2 begins, this time in a more countrified setting where Aaran and Jura can spend the rest of their days enjoying a little easy living. As you can imagine combining the loss of such a character with a large upheaval and countless other minor and major hiccups has been quite something, however we are within days of bringing everything to a conclusion and finishing the relocation just in time for Lost Alice, this years major release.

In a way the move is very befitting, our new HQ shares the same age as Alice In Wonderlands creator and indeed includes a garden swing and rabbit hole, it's in this new place that I will finish writing Lost Alice just in time for it's first showing at the beginning of September.

We will be travelling up and down the country with the tour; from Glasgow to Sheffield, from Manchester to Newcastle, Lost Alice and indeed both of us will be making an appearance along with many new stories to be told.

New beginnings, new artwork, new stories and new Alice.

We can't wait!

Lost Alice - Are You Ready?

Done.

Complete.

Lost Alice after nine months is finished.

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, probably one of the most imaginatively creative popular books of our time celebrated its 150th anniversary this year, a cornerstone of children's literature and the inspiration for a thousand  more it has no equal. A book full of humour, puzzling situations, lateral thinking, mathematics and wordplay enshrined in a wondrous world of surrealism and symbolism alike.

Last November I sat with my sketchpad trying to work out the details to what would have been the third Lost Impossimal collection - Revelation, the continuing story of murder and mystery spanning hundreds of years but my mind wandered. Idly I sketched out a Lost Impossimal divided between two worlds, Impossimal in looks but merged with Victorian imagery inspired by Punch annuals from 1899. What I should have created was a young Victorian girl wearing two types of clothing reflecting both sides of Victorian society, she was to be in a scene with one of my new characters centred around Spring Heeled Jack; a spark spitting, high jumping, red eyed creation from Victorian folklore.

Instead I had created Alice, not as we know her but rather as parts of Alice pulled together from other sources; almost an amalgamation of minds, a gathering of cherished stories, it all felt strangely familiar. It made me think; what if all creators of popular children's fiction share one thing , what if Roald Dahl, L. Frank Baum, Norton Juster, Dr Seuss and a multitude of others had all mentally visited the same place in one form or another, a collective state of mind that goes one step beyond a dream.

What if that place was real and always there it's just we lose the way to find it.

What if we could find a way back, what would we find now it's been abandoned for all these years.

What if it was called Wonderland?

What if I could show you the way?

Wonderland needs you;  Alice is not herself, in fact she's 'everyoneself' as the Hatter calls it and it's all got very confusing now several new doors have appeared.

For doors need keys and keys need locks, 

several contain the Jabberwocks, 

whilst others open to a different land,

one is never sure who you will be,

when Alice turns out to be all three.

Lost Alice

Coming Soon

A New Wonder In Wonderland

After nine months, one Knickerbockergloria dragon, a Michelin starred Impossimal night, 36kg of clay, six massive eight foot sets, industrial lighting rigs, 36 maquettes and over 5,000 individually made objects we have reached the final stage and the last painting that make up Lost Alice, this years major Impossimal release pencilled in for September. Originally this years releases were supposed to be part three of the Lost Impossimals - 'Revelation' but really we couldn't ignore the fact that Alice In Wonderland celebrated its 150th birthday this year hence this new collection.

We have both joined forces and sunk so much time into this project yet barely scratched the surface of a brand new Wonderland that will expand to go beyond your wildest dreams into a realm like no other. From the predictable title of 'We're all mad here!' to the unpredictable 'Tweedle Do and Tweedle Don't' the madness has seeped out into the artwork so be prepared to view a different kind of Wonderland; a wonderland twisted and crafted around classic literature mixed with fairy tales through the eyes of a very different Alice.

In preparation Jayne has created twenty bespoke original pieces of Alice and the Queen Of Hearts to accompany my six major oils and we have also designed four new sculptures to sit along side. Nine stand alone original maquettes, nine mounted maquette displays and several complex oil sketches will also be available and the whole thing will be packaged up and moved around the country as we go on tour reaching destinations we haven't covered in a while.

The final piece in the Alice jigsaw though is the hardest...

Between 1853 and 1863 four volumes and seven pages of text went missing from a set of thirteen diaries written by a Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, ripped out and discarded by unknown hands. The whereabouts of the missing pages remain a mystery to this day. Were they destroyed? Or hidden?

You may know Charles better by his pen name, Lewis Carroll.

The missing pages are parts of an unseen Wonderland, each revealing untold tales and further adventures of a girl called Alice. Earlier this year we found one of the pages when we opened up The Secret Pantry, Wonderland is everywhere, you just need to know where to look.

And my role in all this?

I'm writing a third Wonderland book.

So be prepared, it's all going to get rather surreal.

 

www.petersmithcollective.co.uk Home Of Foreverbunny and the Impossimals

All Is Revealed!

When I was only four I took up the Important role of becoming the youngest ever secret agent, a fact I can now share after forty three years of secrecy. In my guise as an agent I worked for two agencies, Fireball and Warlord, both deep undercover operations that taught me new skills as a young recruit. By the age of six I was wearing dinner jackets, sipping cocktails and indulging in my new found hobby of smoking. It was only a mistimed accident whilst abseiling from the top of mount Etna after destroying yet another not so secret base that I retired aged eight.

The mission went according to plan, I had infiltrated the base disguised as a shark, which gave me difficulties as not many sharks are to be seen climbing volcanoes so in hind sight it was a poor choice, still, I managed to convince the guards I was here for the newly installed shark pool underneath the trapdoor floor. After being caught whilst changing into another outfit, this time an inflatable Sumo suit, I was put in a badly guarded cell with all my gadgets still intact. Using my banana cosh attached to my left shoe I subdued the one unarmed guard and made my way deeper into FORMASHGETSMASH lair until I found the evil device. A loudspeaker that was poised to endlessly play 'Hey Jude' to the world unless a ransom was paid of £1,000,000.1p in old money.

I will never forget the sound as the explosions ripped apart the loudspeaker just as it reached 'Take a sad song and make it better' which coincidentally exactly what I was doing by destroying it. I swear till this day I almost heard Sir Paul shout 'Nooooooooooo....' to the tune of Mull of Kintyre as bits of the Hey Jude single flew over my head. Apparently it took Sir Paul over thirty years to find all the pieces and put them together to unleash his revenge at the Olympics.

Abseiling away I realised that I had forgotten to destroy the secret cache of Barry Manilows that was being used as an evil backup plan. Operation Cocacabanadrama could devastate society and my mind suddenly drifted to this problem as I accidentally let go and mistimed my fall crushing a young goat herder (sorry!) and sliding 1000 feet down the mountain side on the back of a startled Elk. My failure to destroy the cache was my last mission and another more experienced agent aged nine was sent in instead.

So now, many years later I'm allowed to write up my memoirs. From the evil Punch Your Judy scheme that used exploding sandcastles as a summer sabotage to the equally devious Man of Ice's idea to make all ice cream taste like cabbage and thus bring down the worlds Ice cream stock prices so he could dominate the untainted ice cream market, I was the agent that stopped all these deeds which is exactly the reason why you never heard of them before. A secret you see, that's how they work.

In my new book 'Moonraking Golden Guns Whilst Playing Octopussy at the Casino Royale' I will reveal more on my double agent life and just why I would never take a drink from a six fingered giant with three nipples and metal teeth or indeed use a toilet on a stationary train. Only .99p from bargain bins worldwide.

Lost & Found

With only six weeks left I'm pushing time to complete what I set out to do last November and finish a body of work that goes way beyond anything I have attempted before. Two of the pieces have taken me six months to complete, the remaining four need to be done by the end of July and I'm feeling the pressure.

Bloodlines, the last Lost Impossimal collection was a mammoth task, with numerous models and props used to create the scenes, Lost Alice is that times ten. So far I have built a six foot long tea party, an eight and a half foot rabbit hole and parts of Wonderland normally not seen before including a completely bonkers Tweedle Dum and Tweedle Dee piece that uses hammers to make a point. Over a thousand pieces of sculpture has been created to populate the scenes and each character has its own maquette for reference with four being selected to transform into full sculptures as part of the tour.

So yes, it's a major job but one I'm thoroughly enjoying along the way. Jayne has joined me on this journey helping to create a lot of the background material and indeed designing and creating two special pieces herself which will run along side the releases in the galleries.

Gallery appearances are being sorted as we speak and we should get chance to visit some of the galleries we have not returned to for a number of years. All exciting stuff and it all starts in September when the madness of Alice meets the Impossimals for what promises to be a memorable collection of the surreal!

Oh, and before I forget there is just one other bit of news; the Impossimals are currently in Las Vegas. Just why and what they are doing there will be revealed shortly...

 

www.petersmithcollective.co.uk Home Of Foreverbunny and the Impossimals

Sculptistory

I often forget that a lot of collectors of the Impossimals don't realise that I also produce sculptures on a semi regular basis. This is a selection from over the last ten years, along with this are Lost Impossimal sculptures, Smithy's World Cup home and away Impossimals and the metal rings from 2007. Quite a collection!

Most sculptures come from paintings but the latest pieces such as the Rub-A-Dub Tub and 99 Problems came directly from sculptures I made to produce the painting in the first place.

They all go through a rigorous design stage that makes sure they all look 'Impossimal' in design, I also use this to hide secrets in them too. The above heart shaped 'All You Need Is Love (left)' contains a hidden shadow image, when the light hits it at the correct angle the shadow created is a ring complete with a heart inside, exactly like the 2007 releas 'The Eternal Gift'

'My First Love' the heart holding Impossimal in the top picture was designed to be held very much like you would hold something precious and fits the curves exactly of your hand and chest close to your heart. 99 Problems on the other hand is made to an exact scale to replicate how big and ice cream felt when you were a child, only now you can relive that again as an adult simply by holding the sculpture.

Strange to look back but quietly comforting too, and for the future? Well let's just say it's gone all...

Alice...

Don't forget you can keep up to date with everything Impossimal by joining us on social media, everything Impossimal you could ever want can be found here at http://petersmithcollective.co.uk/social.html

Welcoming

 I have held off posting this blog to give us a chance to get over such an incredible night. It's so easy to say how fab it was etc, the day after but to still look back on it three days later with the same excitement and buzz is something else.

Sixty five for dinner is how I would describe it and after 260 gallery appearances this was probably one of the most nerve wrecking moments; working alongside Michelin starred chef James Mackenzie at his wonderful establishment The Pipe & Glass in an event organised by the wonderful Artmarket Gallery to completely overturn an Impossimal event. I'm talking of course of the Evening With The Impossimals, a ticketed event that took place on Thursday 21st May that ended with the unveiling of the latest and rarest Impossimal painting 'The Secret Pantry'.

We wanted the event to feel as though we had invited friends over for dinner, it doesn't matter if you own, like or want an Impossimal in your life to us you are part of our family and the night needed to be just so.

 It all started off last November with a meeting and meal followed by an informal chat with James who's drive and passion came through immediately. As a rule I don't do commissions, each Impossimal is personal and has a story, trying to get a story for a commission is always difficult so I find it easier to just not attempt them. Not so in this case, James and his wife Kate have a wonderful story, it was this that made the piece so easy to conjure up in my mind.

The history of Pipe & Glass itself goes back hundreds and hundreds of years, even better an old recipe from the 1800's was unearthed nearby and is now part of the menu offered here so I couldn't really have a better start for material to work with.

 On Thursday this is what we walked in to, sixty eight places for dinner spread over a dining room and conservatory immaculately laid out ready for our Impossimal inspired menu.

 Each table had its own number and place setting along with a menu that hinted at the delights to come; who could resist 'Rumbling Tumbly Treats' or 'Drinkydips'? and pretty soon the special coach we had provided arrived and our guests started the evening.

 It got packed. Very packed and pretty soon everything was in full swing followed by a signing session with James and of course...

 The reveal of the rare limited edition and original 'The Secret Pantry'

 I'll tell you a little more about that later but during the night we had a few surprises along the way...

 Every guest received the 'Secret Pantry' story, tightly bound as a memento of the night, not only that but each guest also received one of these...

...a small piece of the models used to create the painting or from our next project the GoGoDragon Knickerbockergloria which appears on the streets of Norwich later next month. Each guest was presented with a small ceramic plate created by Jayne which held a handmade clay model of food which was held in place by resin and numbered and signed. It comes from my love of the children's television series Mr Benn in which he takes an item home from each adventure, I wanted to do that too for all our guests and it seemed to work well on the night.

 Creating the model however was a different matter and it took nearly two weeks to get right.

 Cardboard, paper, matchsticks, glue, clay and of course paint all went in to recreating an accurate scaled model of a room at the Pipe & Glass. Four lights were used to give depth and shadow along with a cut aperture to simulate the canvas size I was going to work on.

 Once lit correctly over a hundred photos were taken with small adjustments to each until it all held together well through the lens of the camera. The final shots were taken and the painting began. Six weeks later it was complete. The two Impossimals are James and Kate, the whole world I have captured is a front of house and behind the scenes look combined with the magic and imagination that occurs not only in the kitchen but into everything they do together. A fitting painting for a perfect couple.

For the very first time ever we allowed the Marquette's to be auctioned, in this case for a local cancer charity; an auction which blew us away as the numbers increased finally selling for a staggeringly fantastical amount over £5000

Meanwhile the original was snapped up and can be seen in it's permanent home at The Pipe & Glass, a fitting reminder of a wonderful night.

And the story? Well yes, there is a story behind the piece, there is ALWAYS a story to be told...

Between 1853 and 1863 four volumes and seven pages of text went missing from a set of thirteen  diaries written by a C.Dodgson,  ripped out and discarded by unknown hands. The whereabouts of the missing pages remain a mystery but rumour has it that each page holds a secret, a secret that only reveals itself at the right place and time.

On the 1st March 2006 James and Kate stepped over the threshold of the Pipe & Glass to follow the dream of opening their own restaurant, steeped in history the building had been so neglected that some would say it's heart had left many years earlier but James and Kate could feel something else in the building, a stirring of something special, something that seemed to reach beyond the years into their hearts.

Many months of hard work passed until one night totally exhausted they were awoken by the distinct smell of baking and the gentle sound of a hand whisk. Leaping out of bed the noise stopped and the smell disappeared, had it been a dream? Maybe, but once or twice a week this would occur, always in the dead of night, always accompanied by the most fantastical smells but no amount of looking could uncover the cause of the noise and the delightful aroma of fresh baking.

The renovations continued unabated, finally reaching the upper levels and the removal of years of paint and wallpaper in what is now the private dining room to reveal a further mystery. Underneath the wallpaper on a disused chimney breast was a small recessed square, very much like a door with no discernible way of being opened.

In 2007 a small piece of brown paper fell from between the pages of a book from the Beverley Archives Department of the Town Council when it was moving to a new building. That small page was a forgotten recipe, a recipe for East Yorkshire Sugar Cakes.  James was contacted to see what he thought about the recipe and it was bought back to the Pipe & Glass where it was easily translated apart from a few places where it referred to a half-hoof measurement, accompanying the recipe was an additional item, a very, very small ornate key.
In 1822 a lady named Eliza Acton wanted to be a poet. To be a poet though you need a poets writing desk and that is just what she purchased, an ancient fold down bureau from a country estate auction and had it delivered home the very next day.

Eliza started to place all her writing equipment in the bureau but noticed that the left had drawer was prone to sticking but one good hard tug later the drawer flew open and a small square of paper dropped to the floor. Carefully she opened the paper square; concealed in its folds was a small ornate key,  so small that it fitted no lock on the desk, the paper however was a recipe for jam tarts that used a unknown unit of measurement; the half-hoof.

A week later Eliza was sat one fine afternoon writing away when she noticed a small wisp of smoke rise up from behind the desk accompanied by the unmistakable smell of fresh baking.  Fearing that the desk may be on fire,  immediately she starts searching for the cause finally pulling out the drawers in her search.
In the gloom right at the back of the sticking drawer she spies a small circle of light, reaching in it felt warm to the touch and in the shape of a very small ornate keyhole.

 She remembered the key; reaching right to the back she places the key in the hole and turns it. There is a click and the back of the desk starts to swing open. Slowly she peers around the back and is amazed by what she finds; a miniature kitchen complete with the smallest Cantering Caketacular Queen Of Bakes baking a cake,  not only is it just creating and baking it's also recording everything on little slips of paper that it stores in a neighbouring miniature room.

This  spectacular creature had no equal in the kitchen, not only did it know how to bake but it also built great baked sculptures such as the Totemcake, six different cakes balanced one on top of each other decorated with a large heart shaped Victoria sponge.

The Queen of Bakes lived with Eliza for many years and over time revealed its secrets including the elusive half hoof measurement. Each recipe the Queen Of Bakes created was carefully recorded and went back many scores of years. Eliza eventually catalogued each and every  recipe the Queen of Bakes had recorded. The half hoof was eventually turned into the table spoon measurement and very soon the first ever collection of recipes aimed at the domestic reader rather than chefs with the inclusion of weights and cooking times was published in a format that survives to this day.

Modern Cookery for Private Families by Eliza Acton was published in 1845 and inspired the Book of Household Management published in 1861, Isabella Beetons formidable tome for the Victorian household.
When Eliza passed away in 1859 the bureau and indeed the Queen of Bakes could not be found, the original contents and recipes also disappeared in the mists of time.

The battered recipe for East Yorkshire Sugar Cakes from 1812 is the only surviving original Cantering Caketacular Queen Of Bakes recipe, confirmed by the use of the half-hoof measurement but a strange thing happened when it was bought back to the Pipe & Glass. That night the whisking noises and the strange comforting baking aromas in the middle of the night seemed exceptionally strong, Just after one'o'clock in the morning a small light was seen to be coming from the side of the small recessed square in the private dining room.

It was a keyhole.

James took the key found with the old recipe and placed it into the hole, it fitted perfectly and a faint click was heard as it turned and the square revealed itself to be a door.

James & Kate never spoke about what they saw beyond the small door only that they had found the heart of the house where all their hopes, dreams and memories had been collected, a magical wondrous place radiating a warmth and comfort that made sure that the Pipe & Glass was never ever again seen as cold and neglected only as warm and welcoming as the couple that made it so.

Remember at the beginning of this story we mentioned some missing diary pages?

On the back of the small door was a pasted single page ripped from a diary, on it was a story called 'The Secret Pantry', it was signed C.Dodson or Charles Dodson, far better known as Lewis Carroll.

The Pipe & Glass is just the start of a story;  Wonderland is real, there are pieces of it everywhere, you just need to know where to find it and now we have found the first missing part of Wonderland, many more will surely follow.

Wonderlander

 Today is a big day, not only is a brand new rare 35 edition Impossimal released tonight at a special ticket event in conjunction with the Artmarket Gallery and the Michelin Starred Pipe & Glass but it also begins the countdown to Wonderland being captured in the World Of The Impossimals.

To celebrate the fact and to bring something different for this Bank Holiday weekend we have pulled from our personal collection an edition like no other. When we created the Tuppenny Pennysaurus way back in 2013 we held back number 75 of 75 for the simple reason that it contained objects from future releases, in this case objects from Alice In Wonderland. SO today we are offering a chance for one lucky person to own this unique Atelier edition the 'Tuppenny Pennysaurus Wonderlander' which not only contains eight brand new hand painted sweets creating a unique pick'n'mix but also a selection of seven hand painted Alice In Wonderland items from releases later in the year.

Unique and a fitting compliment to the other unique edition of 35 which will be released tonight, don't forget you can also register for that piece too by contacting www.artmarket.co.uk direct.

You can find the Tuppenny Pennysaurus Wonderlander at World Of Impossimals ( www.world-of-impossimals.co.uk ) by clicking HERE

All the latest from tonights event can be found on our Facebook page and Twitter!

Return

There is another Wonderland book.

An untold story of Alice who is the Red Queen, I mean the Queen Of Hearts who is Alice but half of the Red Queen, you see that's the problem, it's all got terribly confusing since we found the door.

But wait, you don't know about the door do you?

You wish to find out? Good, then follow me...

...Deeper

And

Deeper

We go.

A third book, four sculptures, six paintings, twenty five keys, three hundred and fifty objects, thousands of hours and only one closed door.

It opens this October.

 

 

Alice is waiting for you.

 

www.petersmithcollective.co.uk Home Of Foreverbunny and the Impossimals

You Must Be Mad

I didn't really think a week later I would still be building the first Lost Impossimal set but here I am still with loads of work to go into the piece. It's been made entirely out of scraps, wire, cardboard and clay and everything is handmade even down to the March hares guillotine and the little iced buns.

Alice in the world of the Lost Impossimals has unfortunately realised that there is indeed two worlds of Wonderland and as she moves from one to another Alice changes. You can see part of her has altered as she leans across the table into a world of madness and her hair and clothing change. You will get a more dramatic effect as I put in the background and the lights, the entire landscape will be torn in two. Alice on the right will exist in a safe make believe world whilst the left will show a topsy turvy house with flying furniture and tableware. I'm absolutely loving making all the different items, I can wait to start some of the other pieces.

The entire scene when finished will be photographed and form the basis for the painting. For such a large amount of work I really can't see me destroying it like the previous Lost Impossimals scenes so instead it's going to be secured down and covered with a hard coating to preserve it and will more than likely feature at a future exhibition and will probably be offered for sale some time in the future.

A full feature length story is also being written to accompany the project; a story that will come together with twelve others to make a small book of short tales that expands on the opening Bloodline stories and unravels more of the mysteries of the Lost Impossimals.

Just the beginning of the journey, just remember a mind is a wonderful thing to lose.

Oh, nearly forgot! We are at Castle Galleries, Wolverhampton tomorrow Saturday 15th between 1-4pm, if you're passing pop in and say hello, we would love to see you!

 

www.petersmithcollective.co.uk Home Of Foreverbunny and the Impossimals

Kitchen Aid Alice

Jayne has gathered an impressive array of cutters for her Foreverbunny pictures that they were just begging to be rooted through. I love old objects now I am an old object myself, things were built to last and be as potentially lethal as possible. Take this nested set of pastry cutters, solidly made with a cutting blade akin to a razor blade. They even come in a metal tin with sharp edges just to get you started with a few nics and cuts before you really get stuck in losing digits.

She has lots of circles, ovals, a full set of sculpting tools a of course an assortment of objects used to decorate each piece she creates. One thing I didn't expect though was this.

Really? You mean there really was a time when it was considered 'swish' to cut your sandwiches into playing card suits? I mean, how do you handle such situations? I for one cannot think of any sensible time I would do this apart from children's themed parties and the occasional time in dress up as Alice for one of my yearly mad hatters tea parties. Oh, and I might use them to make a full deck of cheese, cucumber and brown sauce sandwiches, my secret pleasure that I could eat for every meal.

I could also use them to cut out fancy luncheon meat or how about a literal club sandwich where everything is clubs, the mirth would never end. How about spade cut sponge cake for gardeners or heart cheese quiches for weddings, the fun never ends does it.

Cutting gold they are and I shan't have a bad word said against them.

But OMG look at the back of the box, they do more lethal kitchenware including something that could only be described as a Zombie Steamroller; a lightening mincer, the fastest way ever to lose fingers and quite possibly multiple limbs in one convenient rolling action. Can you imagine this being for sale today? It would have safety screens and be encased in finger proof perspex. The rollers would be plastic rather than sturdy metal and the warning in the instructions will run on to three pages with a special disclaimer avoiding any potential lawsuits.

Kitchen utilities were a lot more fun in those days, they certainly kept you on your toes or took off your toes depending on how you used them. I blogged a while ago about another useful kitchen aid that had the potential to turn you hand into a small dibber and that's the coffee grinder we have that is so old it can be operated without a cover, well we have since added to the list of lethal gadgets with a coffee perculator. A small kettle like object that passes boiling water through coffee beans by spitting it up a tube and around the top of the lid, all of which you can see through the use of a small clear plastic top. It makes fantastic coffee but even better remove the lid whilst it's switched on and you get a coffee volcano as scalding pleasant smelling liquid catapults up to six feet in every direction.

I call it the ice breaker and use it to liven up a party, it's hilarious.

You will have to excuse me, my Alice costume is beckoning and I have an unbirthday to sort out. There's such a lot to do, scald the guests with coffee, strim my fingers with the roller mincer and of course cut some of those delightful spade and diamond sandwiches, oh and drink some of that stuff that makes me really small, brings the floor much closer and adds difficulty to keys and locks all from that delightful bottle called 'wine'.

 

www.petersmithcollective.co.uk Home Of Foreverbunny and the Impossimals