When I was a kid, my mom was an active member of our local library board, so we always had lots of books around the house. In addition to the military history and craft books, I always enjoyed anything dealing with art, especially books focusing on the Renaissance period. While I liked the Italian masters well enough, I was particularly fascinated by the painters from the Low Countries. Pieter Bruegel and Hieronymus Bosch were two of my favourites, as their work was often quite bizarre, bordering on the grotesque. Here are a few samples:
Bosch's 'Garden of Earthly Delights'
Bruegel's 'Seven Deadly Sins'
With all this in mind, a few years ago I created a fictional setting that I call 'Bruegel-Bosch', a canal town in a composite Renaissance-esque Germany/Low Countries environment. I'm slowly populating it with all things strange and odd. In a way, it was my response to the loss of Warhammer Fantasy's wonderful 'Old World'.
First I started with some of the brilliant Renaissance fantasy figures offered by Lead Adventure (sculpted by the talented Ratnik). Below is a trio of examples (not for scoring):
There are 12 figures in this group and I still have around 16 still to do, each one a delightful study in the strange, macabre and the grotesque.
oh dear, my parents had some of these books at ho e too, but more out of a sense of pretending to appear semi-intellectual than proper interest. Also I had the chance to see some of the works from Bosch in real life and they scare the living daylights out of me still. Not necessarily due to their subject but due to the (in)sanity of the mind they sprang from. I like Breughel better. His canvas displayi g depictions of Dutch proverbs is a favorite of mine https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Netherlandish_Proverbs.
ReplyDeleteAnyway I digress: your painting as usual is top notch, can't wait to see the remaining figures in the lot.
I thought you might enjoy this entry, Sander. Yes, as I've grown older, I've come to enjoy their other works, especially Bruegel's 'seasons' series of paintings ('hunters in the snow' is my favourite).
DeleteThese are properly brilliant. These painters were always the highlight of high school art class
ReplyDeleteThanks Martin. I absolutely loved these as a kid and enjoyed the art classes where we tried to puzzle out what the figures all represented.
DeleteAmazing collection of weird creatures, very nicely conceived, Curt. I like the concept of your trippy town, but certainly could not live with Boschian nightmares on my shelves. Next you'll be setting it in John Martin landscapes, with Richard Dadd's fairyland on the outskirts. There's a fair number of mad artists to work with!
ReplyDeleteAnother brilliant set of figures!
Oooh, I love Richard Dadd! It would be great to do up some figures based off of his paintings. Trippy!
DeleteThanks Noel. :)
Wonderful use of these Eureka sculpts. I’d love to see them in a game.
ReplyDeleteThanks Barks. I hope to put them into sabot bases for the future version of Warhammer Fantasy (fingers crossed).
DeleteThese are just fantastic sculpts, and the painting is amazing.
ReplyDeleteThanks Matt!
DeleteWow, what a properly weird collection of..... ummm..... weirdos? I particularly like the nose holder prop thingy - disturbing stuff! Lovely colour work, really suits them.
ReplyDeleteHaha! I like him too. He's helping 'Olaf the Unsteady' make this advance :)
DeleteDisturbingly Well done.
ReplyDeleteBruceR
Cheers Bruce!
DeleteFantastically disturbing, great work.
ReplyDeleteThank you Paul.
DeleteGreat stuff Curt -- simultaneously cute and creepy!
ReplyDeleteThats what I figure as well. Thanks Simon.
DeleteGreat stuff but amusing and creepy! I always wonder if these works were the results of some truly potent food poisoning
ReplyDeleteI know, they are so wonderfully odd.
DeleteFantastical, grotesque and bloody brilliant!
ReplyDeleteBest Iain
Thank you Iain! I wonder if you will be working on of set similar to this sometime. :)
DeleteSuperbly creepy done in a grotesque amazement! Excellent!
ReplyDeleteChristopher
Cheers Christopher!
DeleteGreat work Curt - disturbing, but in a "refreshing" way, as compared to the GW approach of "here comes something with 5,000 skullz" (which has its own appeal, too).
ReplyDeleteI think many of us out there mourn the loss of GW's Old World - what a cool project in response!
Thanks Greg, let's hope I can put them on the table with an updated version of Warhammer Fantasy.
DeleteThose are just awesome. Well done dude.
ReplyDeleteThanks Dal!
DeleteNow that was one hell of a weird post!
ReplyDeleteHaha! Thanks Ray (I think).
DeleteI'm not sure what I just saw, but they were very well painted. Every one of those sculpts is both amazing and strange at the same time and you've done a great job at bringing out the character of each of them.
ReplyDeleteThanks very much Stuart!
Deleteoutstanding Curt, really like those!
ReplyDeletecheers
matt
Thank you Matt!
DeleteNice Work
ReplyDeleteCheers
DeleteSuper collection of the wierd and wonderful, great figures, great painting 👍
ReplyDeleteRegards KenR
Thanks Ken!
DeleteTotally amazeballs! Love it!
ReplyDeleteYou must have some patience to operate that Eureka miniatures website. I get a case of the vomits after only a few seconds of look at it.
Fantastic work...as always.
Cheers