New Avanti/Artizani show Developed

Brian, Bill Palmer and James McPherson spent the beginning of April creating a new touring show entitled "Six Impossible Things".
It has been developed with a Village Hall audience in mind and will be an evening of music, laughter, science and magic. It will be a joyful night out for all and starts touring in the rural North West of England in October.

Brian to Direct New Touring Show in 2013

Brian has been invited to co-devise and direct a new indoor show which will see a collaboration between Avanti Display and Artizani.
They have secured major funding for a series of outdoor and indoor shows inspired by the line from Alice in Wonderland that the Queen of Hearts could "believe six impossible things before breakfast".
The indoor element is touring the North West rural arts network from Autumn 2013 and promises to be a surreal mixture of Cinema, Music Hall and Fairground Sideshow in the best tradition of both of these  hilarious and inventive companies.

Full details will be at www.avantidisplay.co.uk

Prince of Wales Judges New Queen of Bath Contest in Spiegeltent

His Royal Highness graciously agreed to co-judge the Alternative Queen of Bath  Contest at the 2012 Bath Fringe Festival, alongside the reigning Alternative Queen of Bristol, the lovely, moustachioed Orla O'Carroll. A line up of six unusual entrants ranging from a sheep-woman to a balloon contortionist made it an interesting afternoon for His Highness, a man always fond of a little exotic entertainment. In the end the judges decided on the sheep-woman as most bizarre and she will hold the title for this year.

Prince of Wales Opens Jubilee Cocktail Party in Lovely Village

His Royal Highness Edward, The Prince of Wales made a gracious appearance at the Limpley Stoke Jubilee Cocktail Party in honour of the Queen's 60th year on the throne. Admittedly, he had been under the impression that it was his mother, Queen Victoria who was being honoured, but all turned out well in the end and a lovely time was had by the guests, especially the ladies, who found the prince's sophisticated attentions much to their taste and his gifts of roses and champagne particularly welcome. Sadly they declined his kind offer of a private audience in the nearby Chabonais Guest House. Edward has now entered the exotic menagerie of characters on offer from Fine Artistes and can be made available at any time for personal appearances.

Krone Brothers search for new movie talent in UK

The legendary Hollywood directors The Krone Bros. were in Bridgwater, Somersetshire in April 2012 looking for new talent for their upcoming Costume drama Downtown Abbey. They were astonished by the range of abilities on display in this small town and are looking forward to working with the new actors that they discovered.
See this link to watch the screen tests.

Fine Artistes Lead Mintfest Summer School 2011

Before and during Mintfest 2011 Brian led a group of five "students" on a ten day course in Street Arts. With this really creative team he dreamed up a scenario based on the latest local health scare - Sheep Tick Outbreaks. As a result Mintfest 2011 became Infest 2011 and International Insectologists gathered in Kendal to deal with the giant swarm of dangerous bugs spotted in Europe en route to Britain. The students' performances on the weekend were accomplished and enjoyed by public and participants alike.Brian hopes to attend again next year. Here we see the students in action, warning townspeople of the imminent danger of bugs as big as chickens heading their way.. They are armed with the latest zap-guns in the top picture.
See clips of their performances - with thanks to Antoinette Burchill, one of "The Delegates" and a performance artist herself click below on - http://storify.com/misachievement/the-delegates
and http://vimeo.com/album/1690385
This piece has now featured in Derby Feste 2011 as "Made in Derby" as the performers were mainly sponsored by Derby City Arts. These second performances were an even greater success, and "The Delegates" now intend to continue as a performance group.
What you might call " a result".

Street Studio at Henley Youth Festival 2011

We were in Henley on Thames on Saturday March 26th with the Studio in the Street.
Here are some comments from Jane Gray, one of the organisers:
"Fine Artistes came to our Art Event as part of the Youth Festival "Fantasy in the Square". The studio made a fantastic central piece to our event.Everyone loved the still life table and the "talking pictures". The end result of the interactive canvas was brilliant - even more impressive than the photos on the website - and this is now proudly hanging in the local Youth Centre for all to see. Brian and Rose were brilliant artistes and entertainers and we would ask them to come back for a future festival in one guise or another!"

Criminal Gang Slash Somerset Arts to Death

Conservative controlled Somerset County Council ratified their decision to cut the entire Arts budget for 2011 at a meeting in Taunton in February. Fine Artistes and Friends were there to mark this act of vandalism.
We were dressed as a group of mourners who delivered an In Memoriam for the old friend we knew simply as "Art". He brought a lot of joy and smiles to peoples lives and didn't ask for much in return. That's just what he got of course - a mere 0.0004% or £159,000 of the total Council budget. This funded ten popular projects.
Expect to see more of this Philistine behaviour across the country as the criminal gang who call themselves "The Coalition" get their knives into the things that matter the most to us.
Somerset Film recorded the occasion and the local TV broadcast the event on the regional news programmes.
Photo Tim Martin
For a short film of the event made by Somerset Film please clink on this link
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OnLETo3o-CE

Fine Artistes' Band of Angels

As seen here in Shanghai outside the UK Pavilion, Fine Artistes can now offer a band of celestial attendants to welcome your guests to any of your celebrations in the future.
We can provide up to eight such heavenly bodies who will grace your soiree and provide an angelic atmosphere to complement your ephemeral excesses.

Fine Artistes - As seen in China....

Through August 2010 Fine Artistes were guest performers at the World Expo, Shanghai, presenting a whole new repertoire of work plus pieces pioneered by Ric Jerrom and Haf Morgan of The Quest of Bath.
We were booked to perform around the extraordinary British Pavilion, seen behind Sir Bernard Britannia here.
Have a look at the youtube slideshow on this link
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QUMhFLcb38Q

The Old Boys have had a bit of luck...

These two old chaps have had a big win on the Lottery. By pure chance they have bumped into a lady who says she is a long-lost niece. Young people these days, they're so kind.
For more photos click on http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W5uFLhcIln4

Danger! Fine Artistes at Work..

Blim Burns, The Art Tart and Rupert Le Beurre all gathered for the the great Waterford Watercolour Challenge - made famous by TV's Hannah Gordon.
Each artist created a special one-off canvas in honour of their visit - Blim Burn's "Ireland, seen from the Back of A Prison Van", The Art Tart's "Self-Portrait in Boots No7 and Spray Paint", and Rupert's ground-breaking "Forty Shades of Green", based on the new Irish Dulux colour card.
For more photos click on http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fHqmmksfk-Q

Making an Exhibition of Ourselves

This is a Living Art Gallery featuring Henry VIII, The Laughing Cavalier and The Mona Lisa. They all had rather a lot to say for themselves and the audience were not shy in joining in. Henry is obviously sizing this young lady up for wife number seven...
click this link for more photos of this piece

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G1sk2GaE1II

The Two Brians Open Modern Art Show

Here are the Two Brians at the opening of SOMA Gallery's new show Everyone is An Audience performing their homage to Gilbert and George with one of their older admirers looking on. The Brians are well-known in Chelsea for their avant-garde "poseur" work.
For more photos of their visit to Waterford please click this link http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=okRxvrHw1hY

July in Henley and Waterford

We presented our pieces in Henley Festival and Waterford Spraoi to great responses.
Here are Leo and the Two Moaners in Waterford outside one of the very many bars...
click here for more photos of this jolly piece http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7AwZLig11Sc
and for something completely similar click on
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YjsXh4WKm54

Brucetus the (3rd Century) Builder, Yes He Can!

Brian of The Two Brians and Rupert and Arabella fame can often now be seen in the guise of Brucetus, a Romano-British stonemason in the Roman Baths in the city of Bath, or Aquae Sulis as the Romans named it.
Andrew Chu of the Welwyn Garden City Photographic Club kindly sent this photo.
The period characters are provided by the Natural Theatre Company of Bath.

Fine Artistes Performing at World Expo 2010

Fine Artistes have been invited to perform at the UK Pavilion during the World Expo 2010 in Shanghai.
70 million guests are expected.The Pavilion (above)is an astonishing structure that will house The Seed Cathedral - a collection of examples of plant seeds that was pioneered by Kew Gardens' Millennium Seed Bank.
The Pavilion is made up of 60,000 light-catching rods that will direct light into the building and will illuminate one seed each. We will be creating a whole host of new pieces specially designed to appeal to the waiting crowds outside the UK Pavilion.
Fine Artistes Calendar 2010 to date...
March 13th & 14th Big Day Out, St Patrick's Festival, Dublin
April 12th-17th Directing New Avanti Display street piece Mystic Monty which will be premiered in Whitehaven in May and then in June in Paradise Gardens, Victoria Park in London.
June 27th London to Oxford Bike Ride
July 4th Manchester to Blackpool Bike Ride
July 7th-11th Henley Festival
July 18th London to Southend Bike Ride
July 25th London to Cambridge Bike Ride
July 30th-August 1st Spraoi Waterford, Ireland
August 9th-September 5th The World Expo 2010, Shanghai, China
October 4th - 31st The World Expo 2010, Shanghai, China
For the Expo we have created a whole repertoire of new pieces designed especially for Chinese visitors who will not speak English. 70 million guests are expected over the 6 months - that's 40,000 an hour potentially going through the UK pavilion!

Street Studio at Big Draw in Bristol

We presented two outings of the Studio in the Street for Bristol's Big Draw.
The first at the Mall and the second in Cribbs Causeway. In association with Bristol Drawing School, scores of people joined in with our painting and drawing celebration and had a great time in the bargain.
To see more click on
http://www.flickr.com/photos/31162316@N04/sets/72157622783824092/

Studio in the Street at Cribbs Causeway

We will be presenting our Studio in the Street Drawing Class in Cribbs Causeway Shopping Centre on Friday, October 30th.
Come along and join in...
To see some finished Studio canvases please click http://www.flickr.com/photos/fineartistes/sets/72157622376843800/show/
and to look at our photo gallery - http://www.flickr.com/photos/fineartistes/sets/72157622168609572/show/

Street Studio at Bristol's Big Draw

Once again The Bristol Drawing School invited Fine Artistes to run our Studio in the Street in the Mall shopping centre in Bristol as a part of the The Big Draw National Drawing month. This is a celebration of the joy of drawing and every person in the country is invited to put pen, pencil, felt-tip and every other means of making a mark to paper and canvas.Scores of people of all ages joined in and the finished canvas celebrating Bristol is pictured here.