Life imitates art. I've almost finished my latest mural at 42 Commando in Plymouth. I tried to take a work-in-progress photo earlier, stopped to do a neck-pop and then realised afterwards I'd mimicked my creation, Sir Mount The Ladder Lad.
#42commando #royalmarines #ship #shipstagram #killingbaddies
The wine was sour. I threw it out. This fast-roping bootneck is (or will be) part of a large mural inside the gym at 42 Commando's barracks in Plymouth. I don't like the work I did on it yesterday so I spent 5 minutes getting shut of it. A day's graft down the swanny in 5 minutes and I'm not even sad about it because sometimes it's just part of the process. All that'll matter at the end is how it good it looks by then and no-one will care whether the artist had the occasional blip, brain-fart, broke a fingernail or said some very bad words. As my grandad would've said "They won't ask how long it took. They'll ask who did it."
In "The Agony and The Ecstasy", the 1965 Michelangelo biopic starring Charlton Heston and Rex Harrison, there's a scene in which Michelangelo has started painting the Sistine ceiling, has sunk a few days' work into it but isn't happy with the overall plan and it's nagging at him. He stops at a tavern on his way home one evening after a day of grinding away at something when his heart isn't really in it and gets served a cup of sour wine. He complains to the owner, who tries it and agrees. The owner then picks up an axe, walks over to a huge vat of wine and starts smashing it, spilling the sour wine all over the floor. Michelangelo learns a lesson from this, goes back to the chapel, erases everything he'd done up to that point and reconfigures the plan.
"The wine was sour. I threw it out."
Whether t really happened or was just Hollywood I don't know but it's one of the best art lessons I ever learnt. Hopefully I'll be posting a regain story tomorrow.
#royalmarinescommando #royalmarines #seascape #recoveryaction #art
Good Friday
"He who would be great among you must be your servant and he who would be first must be your slave."
Leadership is a service, not a privilege.
Iesus Nazarenus Rex Iudaeorum
#goodfriday #Easter #Jesus #biblicalart #christianart
Military pin-ups Machine Gun Charlie and Betty Blues. These two ladies are both lifesize and painted onto walls (Betty is painted onto a tiled wall, hence the squares). Charlie lives at the Commando Logistics Regiment in Devon while Betty resides at 45 Commando in Arbroath.
#pinup #girlswithguns #militaryart #royalmarines #muralart
Happy International Women's Day 2026.
Mural of Mary Gawthorpe, 1881-1973.
Teacher, Trade Unionist and Suffragette from Bramley, Leeds, where this mural is located.
#internationalwomensday❤️ #mural #Leeds #leedsart #suffragette
Bespoke engraving (embellished with blue resin) to commemorate the successful channel swim by the "Cosmic Rays" relay team. During their adventure, they encountered a French warship, numerous disgusting jellyfish and a petrel so large, it looked like its mother had been rogered by an omnibus. They also pretty much doubled the length of the swim by doing it in zigzags - the red line indicates the route they actually took, not the one they intended to take. Sterling effort by the team.
#channelswim #channelswimming #engraving #bespoke #personalisedgifts
The aptly named Bart Legend, bootneck PTI @cloakroom_bart getting work underway on the colouring-in of the mighty Neptune. The red trim on his white vest identifies him as a physical training instructor.
#royalmarines #gym #roman #artwork #military
Great write up in the @globeandlaurelmagazine about some of the work we completed at the Commando Training Centre before moving on to 42 Commando where we're currently entrenched.
Thank you to @rich_davo for the article and to Dodd Defence Services for the sponsorship.
#royalmarines #royalmarinescommando #Wallart #mural #mountaineering
YouCannotBendit don't do Valentine's Day cards.
Because no-one would buy them.
(Except maybe medical students.)
If you're a sad singleton reading this, I hope you find someone who's prepared to resort to dating you soon, you poor unloved creature.
#valentines #love #carddesign #design #heart
Plan for a mural which didn't pan out, as it was overtaken by plans to demolish the wall it would've been painted on. This depicts a syndicate of three Commandos on a mission to blow up a bridge, being interrupted by a sentry who was subsequently relieved of his trachea, poor chap.
#commando #commandos #worldwar2 #secondworldwar #royalmarines
