what a nice and highly detailed piece of work...

Jaydiva, thanks so much for posting. So glad you like the picture!

Wonderfully detailed scene, with great colours and lighting. Very nice work, Mike!

This is just lovely!!

I love the style and attention to detail in this pic. I would, however, like to comment a bit on the message of this pic. I have lived for some time in London's East End which is close to the former London docks which were so extensively attacked during the London Blitz and suffered terrible destruction. I am sure that the people there and in other parts of London wouldnt sit in their airmchair reading the newspapers or watch the spectacle outside the windows (which had to be blinded anyway). Instead people would be rushed out of their sleep by shrieking sirens, grab their suitcases with their most important belongings while rushing to the apartment door and would prey to make it in time for the next bomb shelter. Other less happy people would have to resort to underground stations or the basements of their houses which might collapse on them in case of a hit. If things went well one would only walk through carnage and destruction. If things went not so well one would "bombed out" i.e. have one's house destroyed. Or loose one's life. So much for "class". The rest depended on the country were people happened to live. Whereas the London Blitz was practically over by summer 1941, the population of Germany was subject to indiscriminate day and night area bombing until April 1945. As in my birth town of Hamburg, were the "firestorm" would cremate entire city districts with all their residents. My mother - then three years old- narrowly survived because her mother wrapped her into a water soaked blanket. While choking from smoke and burning air, trying not to be swept away by the fire hurricane that made all the ancient churches of the city toll like frenzy as if they were to announce doomsday, dogding the collapsing buildings of their neighborhood, bumping into living torches and stumbling over corpses, they miraculously made it to a place of relative safety. After daybreak she had her first face-to-face encounter with an American (much later she would live and work as a bank clerk in Florida): she and hundreds of other survivors had assembled on a nearby Autobahn circle were the red cross was handing out soup and blankets to the survivors when US fighter planes came down and started strifing the survivors on the lawns. They were flying so deep that she could see the faces of the pilots in their cockpits. Her sister Ruth couldnt see anybody since she had been blinded by the phosphor of one of the British incendiary bombs. So much for "fortitude". The second I saw this picture I thought that you must be from the US or an other country far away from the reality of war. In fact the only people who could afford to live on "with style" during this war were the people in America. A main reason while people in Europe are so much more reluctant then most Americans to embark on a new worldwide "war on terrorism" or against a murky "axis of evil" is that Europeans have a collective memory of what it really means to be at the receiving end of a war machine (like this little example of family oral history). War and "class" just don`t match. Believe me.

Wonderful detail! If I were going to pe picky, I would say that the characters are a bit unrealistic. They seem to be behaving too casually, given that the city is actively being bombed. Maybe if they all had their attention focused on what's happening outside.

bebe, if you read what mikero451 said, you would see that they aren't supposed to be looking outside, cause if they were, they wouldn't be carrying on their normal life. While I agree that in actuality, they would probably be hiding or something, I think the over exageration of their peacefulness in a time of such fear and panic is what makes this piece a great one. mikero451, I feel that the texture of the people and furniture is a little... cartoonie if you know what I mean. Perhaps you should expriment with diferent textures and colors. The cat is WONDERFUL though. Congrats for a great piece over all.

I appreciate all your comments,lookoo, bebe, and trixster. :-) And I have learned a thing or two from your well-thought out feedback about actual conditions. Lookoo, what a very vivid piece of writing...just excellent. I felt I was back in that horrible time reading it. Thanks for telling it like it was.(Yes I am an American!) As trixster pointed out, this family was in between the actual bombings. They were trying to keep it all together, even trying to further their education (boy reading). But the young lady keeps an anxious eye on the door...Kitty just seems oblivious to it ALL!

lookoo, thanks for telling it like it is. As for class, I don't think most people even understand the word. As for the physical disembodiment of Americans from world war situations, you are absolutely right. And as a born and bread American, I can say that the only comparison one here can make to the terror experienced by your ancestors is having this country run by millionaires living in D.C. who are apparently obvlivious to the daily struggle of the proles, i.e their complete removal from the horrid realities of the society they have created. Here in Detroit, I work in an area that resembles a war zone, but you certainly wouldn't see that near the Mayor's mansion. Perhaps it's time a few more of us start waking up. And as for this "war on terror" I wonder if anyone of my fellow Americans would consider any of the major players (many of whom have positions in the Bush cabinet or have contributed financially to his potilical success) in the Enron scandal to be terrorists? I certainly do, and it certainly is time to bring ALL the terrorists to justice, not just the ones a handful of rich morons care to profile via the media...and that justice can only be carried out by we the people. As for the pic, I agree with trixster about the cartoony textures. However, the composition is good, and there are some nice details, like the reflection on the glass of the pictures.

Woah! Such controversy. I think this is by far one of your best pics ever Rosy. Before you ever even had Michael or Vicki. Hmmm...Don't recall seeing any other pieces of work this good with the "Dork!" LOL..The interiors are of the most excellent quality, but you and Jo are the best:D Thanks for sharing this wonderful work, Hugs Mahna!!

Mahna, you really made my "night"! LOL. Yeah the Dork can look semi-human, in the right light I suppose! LOL. And thanks to YOU for sharing YOUR wonderful, magical art. :-D :-D