Ariadne Oliver – pencil and pastel

With Zoë Wanamaker, of course.  Judging by the hair and the outfit, I’m thinking the image is probably from Cards on the Table? You’d think I’d know…

I’m going to have a cup of tea now.

The painted miniature books (5)

Zoë Wanamaker cuts a dashing figure as Ariadne Oliver in the Poirot series. Everything from the voice to the love of apples to the delightful, eccentric absent-mindedness is portrayed to perfection. I put Mrs. Oliver on half of the six Poirot novels in which she features, and I consider them some of my best covers. She seems to actually make Poirot look more like himself; perhaps that’s true of the acted roles as well.  🙂

So accurate is the episode’s detail to the character of Mrs. Oliver that even the particular hairstyle that she’s experimenting with in the book– the “fringe”– is portrayed. I say nothing about the accuracy of the script in general, but that’s a post for another day.  😉

I’ll say it again– the costumes for this character were AMAZING. And for the Dead Man’s Folly cover, it seems to have affected the Poirot painting, too– that is probably the best overcoat I have ever painted (even if it is an inch long).

The Elephants Can Remember cover is one of my absolute favorites. The clothes and the faces came together so well. I was really delighted with Poirot’s left sleeve and the glints of bling, and the lady’s clothes and accessories.

Mrs. Oliver is magic, that’s all there is to it.

Poirot and Ariadne Oliver – painted sketch

Poirot and Mrs. Oliver, from Third Girl. Acrylic on watercolor paper.

The style for this little painted sketch was different from my usual; I decided to be a little crazier with the colors, brushstrokes, and the dark outline. The picture was created because someone on the Internetz happened to say that they wished there were more Mrs. Oliver pictures or some such. (I told you I create fan art on slight provocation.) The one problem is that it was done on very poor-quality watercolor paper. The paper was actually disintegrating as I used it. Ugh.

But I hope to do more pictures of Mrs. Oliver in the future. Zoë Wanamaker was splendid with David Suchet in the series, and matches very well to the book description of the character. And I know that she’s great fun to paint, because the three miniature books I painted with her picture all turned out very well. Her outfits are glorious, too.  🙂