"Well, it's very impressive, yes, but we need to ask
you a few questions".
In memory of the actress Gina Mastrogiacomo, who died in 2001 aged 39 ... I first saw this film in a cinema in San Diego
when visiting a friend who worked in the shipyards.
Anyway, at the end of a business trip to the Netherlands in early February of this year, my
wife and I stayed in a hotel on the seafront at Scheveningen for our last night.
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Scheveningen - photo by CEphoto, Uwe Aranas |
On the morning of the Sunday, before we drove to catch the overnight ferry departing from Ijmuiden to Newcastle,
we visited a large and popular fleamarket in the centre of The Hague
and one of the things we bought was a large plaster bust, for 20 euros.
It's a good size, around 550 mm (22") tall. I thought it might be a copy of some famous sculpture, but if so then I couldn't find any reference to the original during an internet search after we'd brought it home. I also researched the subject matter to see if I could identify a particular Greek or Roman goddess, but that also failed due to a lack of iconography - the girl in the bust is simply holding a shawl around her shoulders, and is not carrying anything.
We thought the bust would look good on a plinth as the centrepiece
within our new circle in the front garden.
The only problem being, of course, that it's cast in plaster
and not resin or concrete, so if it was left outside unprotected it would likely dissolve into a puddle of gypsum slurry after the first heavy rains.
Back in February we'd bought some specialist stone-effect spray paint and clear lacquer to protect it - the paints actually cost more than we'd paid for the bust - but it was too cold and wet for painting at that time.
The
paint was to turn it back into its original colour, because it had been
hand-painted by a previous owner and they hadn't made a very good job of
it. The lacquer is required so that the
bust will shed water without it soaking in to the surface of the plaster and causing damage.
So, during a recent spell of fine weather, it was time to
tackle this mini-project.