CRYPTOLINKS: Sea Serpent Stories

A word about cryptolinks: we are not responsible for the content of cryptolinks, which are merely links to outside articles that we think are interesting (sometimes for the wrong reasons), usually posted up without any comment whatsoever from me. 

Weird Norfolk: The Eccles-on-Sea sea serpent

Norfolk Eastern Daily Press

“I am positive,” said Mr Witard, “that what we saw was a sea serpent. We were all on the beach together on Wednesday evening when we saw the ...

AROUND CAPE ANN: A wave of music, art by the sea this weekend

Gloucester Daily Times

A celebration of the 200th anniversary of the sighting of the Gloucester Sea Serpent takes place. Listen to hourly readings of “The Serpent Came to ...

RAINES EXPLAINS: Bye Bye Bob

DAN HOLDSWORTH: Strange Sculptures

I seem to have a knack of finding these things...

Firstly in Woking, home of H. G. Wells:
http://goo.gl/maps/5Cqv8

and secondly in Manchester. Quite why a sculpture of a sinking ship is
here, instead outside the Manchester City ground, I really can't say:
http://goo.gl/maps/wPKxl

A painting of a Yeti in a Northern art style

My latest cryptozoology painting is of an encounter with a Yeti. 

This mystery creature than has been painted many times but this could well be the first time in the Northern School style. 

Recently one of my paintings sold for five thousand pounds, but you will be glad to know that this painting is very reasonably priced and is it is currently available for sale on eBay  

This contemporary painting which is oil on stretched canvas measures approx. 9" x 12" and is in excellent condition with lovely vibrant colours.

GLEN VAUDREY, Northern-art-style Bigfoot painting

My latest cryptozoology painting is now for sale on  eBay. This great painting captures a couple of folk having an unexpected encounter with Bigfoot. 

Bigfoot has been painted many times but this could well be the first time in the Northern School style.

This contemporary painting, which is oil on stretched canvas, measures approx. 9" x 12" and is in excellent condition with lovely vibrant colours.

HMMMMMMMMMMM

Updated: "Scientists" uncover global league of mythical creatures

Lack of peer review makes findings less credible, more awesome.

The yeti/unicorn team is unstoppable.

Artist Mike Mitchell (click to buy his stuff)

How do you know a news story is going to be good? One sure sign is that it opens with the line, "There's a high likelihood that hairs recovered during a state-sponsored expedition in a southern Siberian cave came from a yeti, a prominent Russian cryptozoologist said Tuesday."

Read on...

JON'S PORTRAIT BY THOM ATKINSON

You may remember that last summer portrait photographer Thom Atkinson visited the CFZ and photographed Jon for an art project (don't giggle - it wasn't THAT kind of art project). Here - for the first time - are three pictures from the session..

LARS THOMAS: A little something for the blog

Hi Jon,

Whilst pursuing one of my minor hobbies (the life and times of Leonardo da Vinci) I stumbled upon this drawing done by the great man probably in 1513, intitled 'Studies of cats and other animals.' All well and good - I see several cats, something looking like a lion and perhaps a couple of bears fighting. But what is that thing just below and to the right of the middle of the drawing? I know Leonardo did several drawings of costumes and set pieces for theatre, one of which a large dragon, but he usually labeled his drawings and made various notes about them. But this creature is just inserted in between all the 'regular' animals. Ideas anyone??

Lars

CALLING ARTISTS WITH A TOUCH OF VINTAGE DERRING DO!

The CFZ, or rather CFZ Press, are on the want. We know that there are a whole slew of talented artists out there, and that quite a few of you read the CFZ Bloggo network. But what we don't know is this...

...is there anyone out there who could work on some book covers for us? We want someone to do pastiches of classic boy's adventure book jackets, especially the ones for authors such as Roger Lanclyn Green in the halcyon days pre-1960.

Please email me on jon@cfz.org.uk

OLL'S MODEL WELS - a work in progress

Oliver is making a model wels catfish for the museum. I was rather impressed by the work in progress and decided to share it.

Anyway, the sight of Oliver in his demon barber outfit was worth a giggle....

CFZ AUSTRALIA: Thylacine pelts for sale

Bet that got your attention! OK, not genuine thylacine pelts but cleverly crafted 'pelts' by two Tasmanian artists.

Read more about the pelts here.

Posted By CFZ Australia to Centre for Fortean Zoology Australia at 6/12/2010 01:50:00 AM

HEAD'S UP FROM AUBREY

Hello Jon,

it's Aubrey the whale artist from Toronto. Love your work I make it my mission to read every story every day, and I love everything you do. Below is a link of a strange unknown animal discovered only days ago in Northern Ontario. No one is sure what it is, but I must say it is very strange looking. Wishing you all the best

http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/292321

Thank you to everyone else who sent me the story. Personally I think it is a dead otter, but I would be interested in your opinions....

ELEPHANT PAINTING FROM MATT W

The picture on the left was sent by Matt Williams, and it reminded me irrisitibly of the 1967 debut LP by Elephant's Memory, which was by far the best thing that they did, and hardly anyone has ever heard of.

ROBERT SCHNECK: Insect artisans

Hi Jon,

Have you ever seen the work of French artist Hubert Duprat?

He gently removes caddis-fly larvae from their protective tubes and puts them in a tank containing gold, semi-precious, and precious stones. The larvae use these materials to construct new, more decorative, tubes.

Duprat's Wikipedia entry:

Hubert Duprat is a French artist known for his unusual work, an artistic intersection between caddisfly larvae and gold, opal, turquoise, and other precious stones.
Caddisflies naturally construct elaborate protective tubes from materials found in their environment. Left to nature, the caddisflies use twigs, snail shells, bits of sand and small stones - objects found in their stream bed homes. The tubes serve various purposes - they use stones to increase traction in fast-moving streams, and spiky twigs make the tube (and thus, the fly larva) more difficult for predators to swallow.

Duprat, born in 1957, began his work with caddisfly larvae in the early 1980s. He collects the larvae from their normal environments and he takes them to his studio. There he gently removes their own natural cases and puts them in tanks filled with his own materials, from which they begin to build their new protective sheaths. When he began the project, he only provided the caddis larvae with gold flakes. Since then, the larvae have enjoyed various semi-precious and precious stones, including turquoise, coral and lapis lazuli, as well as sapphires, pearls, rubies, and diamonds.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hubert_Duprat

EDITOR'S NOTE: I think these are utterly exquisite. As a boy, when I used to keep aquatic inverts in the shed which is now the CFZ Museum (nothing much changes), I carried out experiments using little bits of plastic waste, and fine sand, and marvelled how caddis larvae, once ejected from their original homes, would make intricate new ones surprisingly quickly. But to use precious stones and gold leaf is the work of genius.

LIZ CLANCY: Art Exhibition with Cryptozoological Leanings

I FINALLY found the cable to plug my phone into a computer so here are the photos from that exhibition I've been promising you for the last 90 years.

The artist is Helen Fielding. She's from Lees and grew up there and all the paintings are of things that happened in her childhood during the Edwardian era.

AFTER THE DAY OF JUDGEMENT depicts Belle Vue Zoo animals in Lees the day after a great fire in 1910 while the artist's aunt tells stories. Apparently the animals escaped from the zoo during the fire. One the tigers actually belonged to a private individual called Biddy Murphy, though.

MISTY NOVEMBER depicts Helen Fielding in some woods in Blackpool. Her brother saw a tiger in the bushes and thought it was their neighbour, Biddy's tiger. This was in 1906. Since Biddy's tiger was still in Lees, either the little boy imagined it or this was a big cat sighting! (Hopefully the latter!) Anyhow, the pictures are attached and for any CFZ readers that might live up North, the exhibition is open in Touchstones, Rochdale town centre till 1st June.

Look after yourself and God bless

Lizzy xxx

AUBREY: The tale of the albino garter snake

It is always a pleasure to introduce a new guest blogger. This is Aubrey - the sculptor and artist from Canada that we talked about a week or so back. He specialises in fantastic cetacean sculptures, and the other week we showed you a video of the progress of his work on a fantastically detailed fin whale skeleton. Now he joins us as a blogger...

As a young boy I spent many a day hunting snakes in Southern Ontario. I vividly recall returning home on a good day with a sack full of Garter, Ribbon and Dekay Snakes. The hunt had my Friend Robert and myself drudging through ravines, swamps, creeks and open meadows in search of our prey.

The stories I recall are numerous the snakes many.

One such story was set in early spring of 1973. Equipped with nothing more then a blue gym sack to hold our snakes and a few apples we set out on the hunt. Our destination was Black creek pioneer village set in North Toronto.

Briefly, Pioneer village is a recreated Victorian community from the 1860's. Outside the gates of this park (village) remained a few cellars from homes long past. The basements were nothing more then pits after more then a century of erosion. But it was in these pits that Robert and I found our prey. Sliding into one of these pits we found ourselves up to our ankles in snakes. A green mass of slithering flesh. The stench of moss and the secretions from the snakes was overpowering. The ground below us moved in all directions. This spring ritual found hundreds of males all seeking the affections of one solitary female. This mass of snakes is called a Mating Ball.

We then went about selecting the biggest and healthiest snakes available. We quickly filled our bag with snakes then set off home. The snakes that were taken from this ravine would be relocated to others. We got the idea from watching Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom. Starring Zoologist Mel Perkins along with his sidekick Jim Fowler.

Upon returning home the snakes were stored in my friends backyard, where his father built giant pens for us to house our snakes. At any given time I would say we would have several hundred, of all sizes, colors and species. Our greatest catch was a two-headed garter that was around four feet in length with a rather bad disposition.

After a long day of work I would then return home. I smelled so incredibly bad that my mother would make me almost strip down in the backyard before entering the house. She also would insist that I take a bath, which at 15 I thought I could do without.

Many years have passed since then but at 51 I still can't walk by a log without taking a peak beneath. About a year ago shortly after moving into my new home in Whitby, Ontario, I discovered a local ravine. It was quite heavily treed and bush filled. Working my way down to the river I walked gingerly for about 20 minutes before discovering among the bulrushes and a rather large swamp some fallen logs. After shifting several of these logs all I came upon were some crickets, toads and one little field mouse.

About to give up I then noticed a large piece of bark lying untouched in the grass. Lifting this large piece of bark I was left looking straight at a huge albino Garter snake. It was one of the largest snakes I ever saw and the first albino ever. I estimated its size to be over 4 feet long. Reaching for the snake he lashed out at me biting my hand. The bite is more surprising then painful. Most people don't realize that garter snakes have small teeth no fangs and are not venomous. His strike landed between my thumb and first finger drawing blood. It then darted for some tall grass. Grabbing it by its tail, it tangled its body into the grass, this is a defensive mechanism these snakes use making it hard to extract them. Not wanting to hurt it I released my grip.

This beautiful and very, very rare white snake disappeared into the undergrowth silently like the ghost it looked. I hope to hunt for him again this year only this time with my camera in hand.