Plus of course, the long-term YES fans (Roger Dean did many of the band’s covers and designed their stage sets) have their say here and they are rather more unhappy about their favourite artist being ripped off.

There was also a mention on Roger Dean’s own site but it appears to have disappeared. 

The Artists UK Roger Dean section is here.

What do you think?

Well given the controversy over the new film AVATAR and the alleged wholesale ripping off of Roger Dean’s ideas I guess it is only appropriate to make Roger Dean’s ‘Floating Islands’ our Picture of the Month for December.  Here it is:

This image of it is from the Roger Dean Floating Islands poster published by Pomegranate

The thing to remember is that Roger Dean was painting fantasy landscapes before most of those watching the film AVATAR were even born!  If you are under 35 years old then while you were gurgling and attempting to spray the entire room with your latest meal he was out there making amazing art like this.  Roger Dean is thought of as one of the greatest fantasy artists but he thinks of himself much more as a landscape artist and designer.  As is often the case, the works that Roger Dean is so famous for are not necessarily what he considers to be the main areas of his interest or expertise.  Whatever, his influence is tremendous and his surreal floating islands along with his waterfalls under water have captured the imagination of many people including it would now seem a film director called Cameron.

Well, as usual we’ve been rushed off our feet here and if I wasn’t in desperate need of a coffee break this wouldn’t be getting written at all.  As you may have noticed, on www.artistsuk.co.uk we are committed to dispatching all orders for delivery within the UK in time for Christmas and we hope to maintain this right up to 23rd December with last orders being delivered on Christmas Eve.  Obviously, overseas customers will now need to contact us for courier rates if they want to stand any chance of getting their goodies by Christmas.  My guess is we’ll definitely have to switch off the guarantee to dispatch in time for Christmas for delivery within the UK before the 26th December because Bruno’s project to develop a time machine still hasn’t borne fruit.  Apparently, the hamster keeps falling off the treadwheel or something 

We recently got an email via Artists UK Dotnet from a French lady complaining about Château des Réaux (see other plentiful previous posts and comments on Château des Réaux !).  It runs as follows:-

Désolée de répondre en français! Je suis également une “victime” de Château des Réaux. Je ne conteste pas le prix bas qui a été proposé, puisque je l’ai accepté. Cependant il était prévu une exposition au château des Réaux et dans d’autres lieux similaires en échange de l’abandon des droits annexes. Puisque l’exposition n’a pas eu lieu, ne peut-on contester les droits annexes ?

This translates into English for our non-French speakers as follows -

Sorry to reply in French! I am also a “victim” of Chateau des Reaux. I do not deny the low price that has been proposed, since I have accepted it. However, it was anticipated that there would be exposure at the Chateau des Reaux and other similar places in exchange for the abandonment of the ancillary rights. Since this exposure has not occurred, can we challenge the ancillary rights?

Hmmm, I think the answer is probably not.  The whole point of the controversy over this “offer” was that the artist signs away any right to be associated with their original artwork for what, to most artists, is considered a pitance.  Since, by the terms of their contract, Château des Réaux do not seem obliged to credit the artist at all, I’m not quite sure what kind of exposure at Château des Réaux or elsewhere would be of benefit to the artist anyway.  Wasn’t the final verdict on Château des Réaux something along the lines of “avoid Château des Réaux unless you are totally desperate to sell a painting” or were we misreading the range of comments we received?