#mark gatiss painting

[ivycopper]

Out of all of Mark's paintings, I love this one best.

[katiesteedart]

Some of the gang.

-Aunty Val is finished 🥰

-Pauline I legit ran out of pens on 😅 (fixing her next)

-Mr Jelly's background is annoying and needs to be changed

[iconuk01]

Now this I didn't know about Bram Stoker's "Dracula"

Mark Gatiss is currently on a TV documentary talking about Bram Stoker's original notes for writing Dracula (Which he was given access to), which include a reference to an idea which never made it to the final version, and that seems a shame.

It wasn't just that vampires didn't appear in mirrors, and wouldn't show up in photographs (Which is mentioned as being "kodaked") but that they couldn't even be PAINTED!

So any artist trying to paint Dracula would end up with a painting which didn't look like him. It would look like someone else. but never him. As if, at some level, he HAD no real appearance.

What a fascinating idea!

[silverview]

maybe the details of art are common knowledge, but i only read up about it yesterday. it's interesting! it opened in the west end in 96 & was something of a popular hit

it's about three old friends who fall out when one of them buys an expensive painting that's an almost-blank white canvas (a quiet night in); one of them aggressively disapproves, calling it pretentious; and the third is caught in the middle trying to keep the peace

had a ton of casts – a new one every three months. (the effect of this is interesting – more on that below.) tlog were selected to be the last lot before it closed in 02. if you don't already know, who do you suppose played each role? it has nothing to do with the weirdly deceptive promo pics. answers & more below the cut

mark played the friend who buys the painting, steve played the one who disapproves, and reece played the guy caught in the middle. i wonder how that decision was made. i wonder if they considered any alternative configurations (bf had steve & reece switched, which i think makes a lot of sense). as always i'm like. but what does the character say about YOU

they got mixed reviews. nearly every review singles out reece's delivery of this monologue, though they disagree on whether it was good or not. perhaps surprisingly, they don't uniformly characterise it (or his performance in general) as particularly angry. not to be dramatic but i would kill and die to have seen it, just that monologue alone

so below i've collected the most interesting parts of surviving reviews. the last one is my fav. some of them have interesting things to say on the effect of the rotating cast, sort of the opposite of the in9 meta-character effect, which i think is pretty funny & fitting

BBC

Reece Shearsmith is a little too giddy with Yvan's furious diatribe about his impending wedding - the laughs are landing so hard that some others are being lost in the process. But he is a particularly touching and vulnerable go-between, desperately sitting on the fence in the conflict that erupts between his friends Serge (Mark Gatiss) and Marc (Steve Pemberton), and finding - as you do - that those who sit on fences are liable to get splinters.

GUARDIAN

[A] play as bland and flimsy as this requires actors who are not only heroically talented but who also have formidable technical skills. Pemberton, Gatiss and Shearsmith don't. They are likeable, even mildly engaging but you are always aware that they are putting on a performance. What's more, they are far less funny than the two other casts I've seen. Shearsmith, for example, flunks the timing of his long monologue so instead of making an audience rock with waves of laughter, he gets only one big laugh right at the end. The silences in the evening, in particular the famous olive scene, are not eloquent, just empty.

THEATREGUIDE

I've heard, though, that other casts have had other dynamics. With some, it plays as light comedy, satirising everyone's pretensions to high passions. Others make it a touching study in the fragility of friendship and all three men's hitherto-unrealised need for it. The cast changes every three months or so [...] Just be prepared for the fact that the show you see will be different in tone and effect from the one your friends saw last year, and will probably be a glib skating over the emotional issues and implications it raises. [...] And while the laidback, indeed colloquial, approach of Mark Gatiss (perky Serge), Steve Pemberton (laconic Marc) and Reece Shearsmith (wickedly neurotic Yvan) may not be to everyone's taste, it's undeniably perfect casting to complete the spectrum of wall-to-wall talent that's made the show such a feature of London's theatrical landscape. [...] Playing cheekily with rhythms of speech and timing, they create a very English rendition of what is essentially a French play, substituting the de rigueur dramatic devices and flourishes with frighteningly real personalities that transcend the dramatic crutch of Yasmina Reza's Continental-style philosophizing text and sub-text. Admittedly the first ever cast of Courtenay, Finney and Stott all those years ago set the benchmark for the production (though I found them yawnsome and wooden) - and the League have the advantage of tapping into the accumulated performances that followed.

i think "laidback," "colloquial," "cheeky," "English" and "real" might be euphemisms for northern – more on that below

CIX

Having now seen Art three or four times (to be honest, I forget which), I've begun to muse that in some strange way it's a metaphor for itself. It's not just the performance dynamics, our impression of the trio's relationship, that varies from cast to cast... it's the very sense of how much real content there is in Reza's play, of whether it takes its thematic concerns about inherent versus attributed qualities (whether of a painting or a person) very far or not. In a sense, the performers are the series of diagonal white lines painted on to the white canvas of the play. And like the lines in the painting on stage (or so we're told), they're not pure white: some are vaguely yellow, some are sort of ochre-ish... In the case of the League, the bizarrely unrelated publicity images make clear that what's hoped for is a kind of fake-blood crimson tinge. So although there's no real indulgence, director Jennie Darnell allows the three to turn in a slight caricature of the naturalism with which the piece has usually been played, that little unreality often seen in the kind of sketch comedy where the group cut their teeth. The elegant apartment set is a world away from the League's fictional town of Royston Vasey, but the casting of the individual members plays to respective strengths familiar from their various screen guises. As Serge, who has paid 200,000 francs for the picture, Mark Gatiss exudes an appropriately smug and supercilious cleverness. As Marc, who faces off against Serge by declaring the canvas "shit", Steve Pemberton is more mercurial, with an air of suppressed violence. Reece Shearsmith, the relatively cuddly one [sic], succeeds in focusing audience identification on Yvan, the less smart piggy-in-the-middle. All three are of course skilled performers, and you can see the rapport gained from up to fifteen years' collaboration in, for instance, the way Gatiss and Pemberton trade facial "mugs" as they first consider the painting. However, this very affinity with each other enables them to skim over deeper elements in the play. When Shearsmith gabbles out Yvan's great bewildered set-piece about the complications of his wedding arrangements, we applaud the high-speed delivery but don't pick up enough of what he says to engage with Yvan's travails.

kissing this reviewer on the mouth for specifically describing what he thinks their respective strengths are & especially for describing reece as THE CUDDLY ONE like... idk if it shows but i'm obsessed with how people see them, and how they see themselves & each other

EVENING STANDARD

Not so much a piece of headline-grabbing stunt casting as three trained actors flexing their thespian muscles [...] bona fide drama graduates, not comedy chancers. This immediately shows, from their poise, projection and presence. Only the dimple-chinned Pemberton as intolerant Marc comes close to his rogues' gallery of BBC2 personae during moments of rage when he cannot come to terms with Serge's purchase of an overpriced minimalist painting. By contrast, Mark Gatiss as the punctilious, pretentious Serge is the epitome of restraint, as cool as his sharp, charcoal suit. The comic moments are all in context. Shearsmith, as the boyish Yvan, is increasingly troubled by his imminent nuptials. This eventually spills out in a breathless pseudo-Pythonesque rant against marriage that is as funny to witness as it is difficult to say. But throughout, the trio respect Reza's text, sidelining their insatiable appetite for the grotesque that has made their their brand of humour so distinctive. This may, however, be problematic. Having sold out in the West End with their sketch show a couple of years ago, some of the threesome's intensely passionate fans may see Art as a follow-up and feel shortchanged. The eye-catching poster may compound the deception, the chopper, axe and chainsaw being wielded suggesting some Grand Guignol flourishes which never materialise.

BBC AGAIN

The northern accents do not quite ring true in the sophisticated setting of a Paris apartment and often lead to flat performances, where one gets the feeling their brand of wit is not quite enough to portray Parisian conceit. The strongest display by far comes from Mark Gatiss (Serge) - the eerie butcher in League of Gentlemen - as the tall, slightly effeminate doctor who acquires the painting, striking just the right balance of preciousness and acerbic wit. The diminutive Reece Shearsmith is adequate in his portrayal of Yvan, the put-down-upon soon-to-be-married stationer caught in the middle of the feud between his two friends. But the biggest disappointment comes from Steve Pemberton, who plays Marc, the critical compadre who takes Serge's indulgence for contemporary art as a personal slight. Pemberton, normally the trio's strongest performer, well-known for his brilliant turn as Pauline in the League of Gentlemen, seems ill at ease in the role. His northern persona cannot quite stretch far enough to inhabit the part of Marc, an angry homeopathic freak whose insecurity finds it hard to cope with his friend's show of independence over the painting. Like the painting, the play does not remain colourless throughout however. One of the highlights is Shearsmith's 10-minute tirade about the difficulties of coping with the women in his life ahead of his impending wedding.

yeah this one is definitely my favourite. casually calls them ALL scallies, then calls each of them out INDIVIDUALLY for being a) gay b) short c) shit. absolute legend. did they ever find this reviewer's body

related, from this article in the guardian:

"When we first did Art, a review said 'Yes, but can they act?' and that made me angry," said Shearsmith. "I remember thinking 'What have we been doing in The League of Gentlemen? It's not standup."

in 2013, reece said art was his favourite ever play to do. highlights from the replies

[loremori]

Martin Freeman (147/366)

Sherlock 2010–2017

Writer & Creator Mark Gatiss Steven Moffat

*Modernized version of the Conan Doyle characters.

**I really like that painting in the background. 💀

[tellthemeerkatsitsfine]

I think this is the first time since season 10 that I’ve watched the first episode of a Taskmaster season without writing a liveblogging Tumblr post as I went along (in seasons 11-16, I stuck to varying levels of keeping up the liveblogs for the rest of the season, but I always at least did the first one). If I’m very honest, the main reason why I didn’t do it for this one is it’s the first lineup for which there was only person I was really really excited about. The other four I have varying levels of vague opinions about, from “broadly like based on the one time I saw her on Russell Howard’s show” (Sophie), to “quite strongly dislike based on seeing her promote stalking and harassment on Alan Davies’ show, but I guess it was probably just a joke that came off badly” (Joanne) to “never got into League of Gentlemen because the surreal vibe creeped me out a bit and BBC Sherlock put me off Mark Gatiss so I know almost nothing about him”. Oh, and I do actively like Nick, because I am one of the few people who’s found Mr. Swallow funny on Catsdown, but I didn’t much enjoy his Houdini special and Ted Lasso season 3 was so bad that it put me off everyone who had anything to do with it even though obviously it’s not Nick Mohammed’s fault, so those conflicting opinions balance out into a vague “I guess I like that guy”.

Anyway, I didn’t want to write a post that was meant to be liveblogging the whole Taskmaster episode, and have that post be 90% about John Robins, and lay out just how much John Robins was the only one I was really interested in, and I also didn’t want to try to make myself have more of an opinion about the rest of them than I actually did. So no liveblog post this time, I just watched the episode. Once it gets a couple of episodes in I will have an opinion on the rest of them, and then might start the liveblogs again because I will have a slightly more balanced view.

Having said that. I have now watched it and do have some new opinions:

- Sophie Willan: I expected the charmingly naïve chaos, based on that time she was on Russell Howard’s show, that’s exactly how she came across on there and it’s great. Funny and sweet just great fun to watch. I did not, however, expect this extreme level of incompetence. I find an extreme level of anything funny on Taskmaster, and this is no exception. Love that we’re going to have a good old fashioned disaster contestant and it’s been marked out so early. Love that she appears to have no idea what show she’s on. Obsessed with her decision to paint that actual fence even though she definitely saw the blinds.

- Steve Pemberton: The “old man who is far too well established in comedy to need this show” contestant actually trying in the tasks, that’s always a fun surprise. I mean, I enjoy it either way. Frankie Boyle, Alan Davies, Julian Cleary, Ardal O’Hanlon – all those guys stumbling through the tasks with bemusement is fun. But it’s a nice surprise when you get a Lee Mack, a Dara O’Briain, a thing that Steve Pemberton looks to be – an old man who doesn’t need this but decides to actually put significant effort into doing each task properly. The egg train was impressive. The stumble at the end was funny. The good-natured attitude in the studio is amusing. And John Robins being the competent competitive force I’m hoping for won’t be as much fun if there’s not another good player to challenge him.

- Nick Mohammed: That’s exactly what I wanted from him. It’s almost weird to hear him talk in a normal voice, which doesn’t make sense because it’s not like he was using the Mr. Swallow voice on Ted Lasso, but I think on some level, my brain operated under the assumption the Mr. Swallow voice was his “real voice” and he was just putting on a character for Ted Lasso. It is interesting to see him play himself, where it turns out, he’s not that far off from Mr. Swallow’s quirks, just with a lower-pitched voice. I liked the exchanged he had with Greg in this manner. I liked the pragmatic approach to getting hula hoops out of a river. I liked the dynamic with Steve. I liked it when he threw some bricks around.

Joanne McNally: I dislike her a bit. Which is a lot less than how much I disliked her yesterday. This episode has brought me from disliking her a lot to disliking her a bit. She was entertaining. I wish I hadn’t seen that episode of Alan Davies: As Yet Untitled, because it’s sending me into this season with a bias against her that may be too much for her Taskmaster persona, as entertaining as it is, to overcome. I like other comedians who've said worse things than that, because I can put those things in the context of all their other stuff and consider it just one badly judged story. Maybe Taskmaster will give me enough context for McNally to get past it. She was fun. I wanted to be able to enjoy her. But she does still annoy me.

John Robins: Here's an idea. What if I do the opposite of the post this would have been if I'd been liveblogging as I watched and had been honest about where most of my interest was (though that interest broadened out as the episode went along, it only takes a small amount of time at the beginning of a season for me to get to know the unknowns well enough to be interested in them too), and make this a post about everyone except John Robins? I'll just end this post here.

(He crashed a car with an egg and he brought in 19th Century literature and he thought through that live task so strategically and and his drawings were so much better than everyone else's and this is exactly the level of competence I was hoping for and I don't mind waiting a bit for the competitiveness-induced outbursts that I'm sure are coming later, because actually it was equally funny to watch him spend this episode just glaring and biting his tongue (and having his voice crack the way it sometimes does on the radio, it happened right at the beginning of this episode, and you always know we're getting something good out of John Robins when his voice starts cracking) whenever he got annoyed about something going wrong. And is adorable that his buddy Alex got a reference to his big award into the episode, especially in a way that says "You know, technically you're on the level with Steve Pemberton."

(The other reason I didn't do a liveblog this time is I was genuinely embarrassed reading back the one I wrote during s16e01, where I frequently transcribed my internal and/or external monologue verbatim as I was too into the episode to also put an edit between my thoughts and the typed words, and was really into backing Sam Campbell like a sports team and Taskmaster brings out the sports team side of me in general, which is how you had bits of that post with me writing things like "Yes Sammy C coming through" with what I hope any reader would (incorrectly) interpret as irony. It's for the best that I avoided that this time and didn't need to document the number of times the words "Come on Johnny you got this" came out out loud as I was watching him throw hula hoops at things. I have never referred to him by that name before, it's just the automatic sports-ifying of people's names that happens when you watch them like a sports team. I'm pretty sure words in parentheses don't count towards a post, so this one actually ended when I said it did two paragraphs ago.)

[markgatissbirthdayproject]

Hello!!!!!

Just a reminder that if you are planning to donate a fan work (fic/artwork) or a physical item, you have until 30 September to contact me with the details.

For fanart- please let me know what you are willing to draw/paint or if you have a specific piece of work to donate

For fanfiction- please let me know what you are willing to write (what fandoms, length, pairings, and/or things you are not willing to write

For anything else- please let me know what it is you are willing to donate (i.e physical media) along with a photo of the item (please note you will need to pay for postage)

Questions? Let me know!!!!

----------------

It is time to think about the Mark Gatiss birthday drive for 2024! Mark’s birthday is 17 October and I’m excited to see how much money we can raise this year! Last year we raised £500 for Switchboard.

To start, we will once again be having an auction for fan works and goods. If you’d like to donate a fic or an item please email mgbdaydrive at gmail dot com.

Requests for donations will end at the end of the month and the auction will go live on the first of October.

If you have questions or anything at all, please let me know.

[johannadc]

Mystrade Fic Rec - Mycroft Paints!

@britsgovernmentmh asked about finding a fic where Mycroft is painting Greg in secret, Sherlock goes snooping and finds the unfinished painting, takes a picture and doesn't understand why Greg is in it, and then Greg finds out about the painting.

I couldn't find it. (Does anyone else have an idea?) Looking for it sent me through all the Mystrade Is Art stories from a couple of years ago, though, and some others. I thought I'd share my favorites where Mycroft Holmes is a painter.

Artist of the Year by ml101 (9300 words, T) https://archiveofourown.org/works/31350860

Mycroft winds up competing for Landscape Artist of the Year, while Greg is working security for the event. Sherlock is a good brother, and Anthea and Donovan help. I love that Mycroft is such an overachiever that he, during the competition, creates two paintings.

Did You Listen? by InnerSpectrum (2300, G) https://archiveofourown.org/works/15916044

Mycroft disappears twice a year. Greg is invited to join him.

To Capture Light by Vulpesmellifera (4900, T) https://archiveofourown.org/works/16989870

Mycroft runs to Canada after Sherrinford, where he paints. Greg comes after him, and it's Christmas. You'll learn a lot about color theory in this fic!

And now the naughty ones… where Greg models nude.

Worth a Thousand Words by janto321 (FaceofMer) (2300, E) https://archiveofourown.org/works/7242751

A substantial PWP.

From Life by green_violin_bow (47K, E) https://archiveofourown.org/works/15691263

Unfinished so far, but what's there is just lovely. Inspired by the same photo from Mark Gatiss' John Minton as the InnerSpectrum one above, seen here.

And my favorite, for its cheeky humor,

Tit For Tat by BeMyGoldfish (3K, T) https://archiveofourown.org/works/34797013

Sherlock blackmails Greg into modeling for Mycroft. Greg doesn't realize Mycroft is expecting a nude model. Shenanigans occur, but only after an overdue conversation. And lots of synonyms for "naked".

(You know the Lewis Grizzard joke, right? "'Naked' means you don't have any clothes on. 'Nekkid' means you don't have any clothes on and you're up to something.")

[fancy-pansy]

I posted 1,968 times in 2022

That's 225 more posts than 2021!

2 posts created (0%)

1,966 posts reblogged (100%)

Blogs I reblogged the most:

@neverlet

@too-funky

@fuckyeahgoodomens

@sunchay

@bookcasewraith

I tagged 9 of my posts in 2022

#mark gatiss - 3 posts

#mark gatiss obvs - 2 posts

#majestic and regal - 1 post

#bbc - 1 post

#kids art - 1 post

#traditional art - 1 post

#art - 1 post

#doctor who bbc - 1 post

#bbc dracula - 1 post

#mycroft holmes - 1 post

Longest Tag: 27 characters

#goodold-fashionedloverbitch

My Top Posts in 2022:

#2

My little brother (his name is Mark) drew Mark (Gatiss) again. Many times. Yes.

Mark after receiving his award (here he's trying to paint with my pastels for the first time)

See the full post

4 notes - Posted July 27, 2022

My #1 post of 2022

Today I watched "Our Flag Means Death", so let me just...

It's just Aziraphale, and... AZIRAPHALE

202 notes - Posted March 23, 2022

Get your Tumblr 2022 Year in Review →

[amplesalty]

Halloween 2022 - Day 16 - In Search of Dracula with Mark Gatiss (2020)

He’s always in the last place you look, isn’t he?

It’s another blast from the past today as we re-connect with an old friend from the first two years of this blog in the form of Mark Gatiss. Amidst all his writing, acting, producing and however many other hats he wears, he found time in the early 2010’s to present ‘A History of Horror’ and ‘Horror Europa’ exploring both the evolution of horror since the advent of the motion picture and a more focused look at the horror output of Europe.

The format would make a comeback of sorts a few years ago as a tie in of sorts to Gatiss’ own work, the 2020 BBC adaptation of Dracula that we covered on here but never actually documented the end of because I’m a real slacker that way. It’s here that Gatiss seeks to cover the history of Dracula from the initial scribbling of Bram Stoker to bloody fangs of his own Claes Bang. Not just a tired look at the link to Vlad Teppish and the like but a question of what has made this character such a prescence in our lives and such a mainstay of various forms of media for well over a century.

Scribbling is to be taken literally as Gatiss is afforded the opportunity to examine a first edition of the novel as well as some of Stoker’s early notes on the story and the different powers that the Count would have, down to the more obscure ones such as no artists being able to paint him. The idea being that any that try, their paintings would come out not truly capturing his visage. Similar to the idea of whether or not you could photograph a vampire, which I had always assumed no as it’s linked to them not casting a reflection, Gatiss posits that the painting things is due to how unnatural Dracula is, there’s something non-corporeal about him.

It’s very interesting to see all the different locations throughout cinema history that Gatiss visits, such as the castle used in Nosferatu or various locations from the Hammer movies. So too the little nuggets of information that come up that I was unaware of, such as the idea of Dracula’s cape having the big collar because it was used to cover up the trap door that was used during the stage versions that Bela Lugosi starred in.

At only 60 minutes long, it’s an easy watch when compared to the length of the aforementioned History and Europa and it’s one that Gatiss himself is able to inject with a little flair. I remember the earlier shows being the same, just something about his presence and cadence is able to take what could easily be a dry look through these different films and story into add some suspense and drama to it. Just hearing him speak with such passion about these stories that have enthralled him from an early age is so engaging.

[katiesteedart]

#KatieSteedArt

Painted (March and April 2024 - it has been a literal nightmare to paint and honestly my confidence was at an all time low with it. I've "fixed" it 3 times and this is where I'm stopping. (I'll post the WIP afterwards but yeah...)

Title - Aunty Val is Appalled

I like the idea that Aunty Val is a Witch. It's been a long run thing from "The League of Gentlemen", so I ran with that..

Normally I take a still image and paint it onto a 10x10cm canvas and that's it but because of all of the issues I've had with it - the image really had to change.

So the story I've made up for this picture is that Aunty Val has *accidentally* turned her family, the Denton's, into toads (Colombian Natterjacks aka the devils toad to be exact) and is thoroughly appalled at herself. She's in her own personal hell.

Also big shout out to @fandomsmeantheworldtome for giving me a lift ❤️❤️❤️

[alexzpaintings]

I felt like painting something happy and autumny  🥺

new instagram | commissions open

[yrkanho9]

I found my old art with Mycroft!

I did it for a very long time, but not sure what worked out well.

UK Government

[klarawhy]

Finally finished my first proper Mystrade fanart! Don't know what's going on there, but I LUV their expressions.