Toni Le Busque

Vegemite and butter on oatcakes! Food of champions! http://instagr.am/p/K0Z4LCONhD/

I got a B.A in colouring in. http://instagr.am/p/Kz_k8EONhn/

New project. Colouring in a print of Van Gogh Goes Round. This was one of the first circular drawings I did. Apparently these ones are like a mandala. I didn’t know what a mandala was when I began to draw them. I only did about 5 of them. They’re very good for colouring in. http://instagr.am/p/Kz05XcuNtP/

Nigel Mansell or Jenson Button. You decide! http://instagr.am/p/KzjQweuNo7/

I painted these flags about 2 years ago, when I was in love and in love with Florida. They’re 9.5cm square, acrylic on canvas. http://instagr.am/p/Kze-URuNny/

Mini Everlasting Spirographs of Happiness bring happiness to your life. £8. http://instagr.am/p/KzeZ1IONne/

http://instagr.am/p/KzeOveONna/

Miniatures of non-miniature drawings. http://instagr.am/p/Kx8iZsuNrW/

The Fuck You Because drawings are finished.
Here’s where you can get a copy for your iPad or phone for only £2.99 or you can get a print version for slightly a lot more.

Thanks to those friends who contributed a Fuck You Because.

And to those of you who inspired the Fuck You Becauses.., FUCK YOU and I hope you recognise yourself!

This just finished, for my Mildura mate, James Healy. It’s a print of Stars in the Dirt and I’ve got the colouring pencils on to it. Nice work, if you can get it, colouring in. You can have a hand coloured print of your very own if you ask nicely and send me £150. http://instagr.am/p/KxTXyPuNp5/

Detail of Stars in the Dirt, coloured in with my nifty colouring pencils and some felt pens

http://instagr.am/p/KxUJKEuNqW/

Detail of Stars in the Dirt, coloured in with my nifty colouring pencils and some felt pens

http://instagr.am/p/KxT_FVONqP/

Detail of Stars in the Dirt, coloured in with my nifty colouring pencils and some felt pens

http://instagr.am/p/KxT7cnONqN/

Detail of Stars in the Dirt, coloured in with my nifty colouring pencils and some felt pens

http://instagr.am/p/KxT4SluNqL/

Get out of BoHo, @nellbelleandme, with your Royal fetish! http://instagr.am/p/KxTDDbuNpx/

This is what our bad cat does Part II

http://instagr.am/p/Kwu7JZuNgn/

This is what our bad cat does Part I http://instagr.am/p/KwuxtRONgk/

Today’s good thing was a chat with Brooke about Instagram and exhibitions and Tracy Emin and growing marijuana indoors and relationship disintegration and…stuff.

I’ve bought the above frames with a project in mind. 5x5 coloured Instagrams of the Ever Expanding Spirograph of Happiness.

I bought 24 frames at 79p each on sale in Cargo.

http://instagr.am/p/KsN1_pONvW/

Jubilee Jim showing his support. http://instagr.am/p/KrpmkcONnq/

http://instagr.am/p/Kri8VDuNmy/

You Were Once Mine; My Valentine
I began this on Valentines day.
It’s about lost love and love never regained.
It’s about people who break your heart and don’t give a toss.

Conversely, it’s happy and colourful, as is love itself.

The right kind, that is.
——-
70x100 cm
Black ink and colouring pencil on white paper
£900

You….and new.
Like me.
Newly coloured.

70x100cm

SOLD

This is called SELF.
It began as a self portrait, but quite frankly, ended up an unintelligible, tangled mess.
Sort of like my life this year.
This is the last in a series of ‘bad’ head pictures that I will be drawing.
From now on in, it’s happy-clapping all the way.
A new year soon, a new outlook, a new way of looking at the world and a new lot of drawings that dwell on the good rather than the not-good.
Can I pull it off?
I don’t know.
The content of my head is dictated by the events of my life.

Or is it the other way round?

70cmx100cm black ink on paper

Here’s another one, called Flow.
I started it a few months ago.
The man with the hammer was initially done to represent my father, building a city.
Milky the Dollar Dog is there, along with photographs of me and my brother and mother, a hand full of holes, a deadline and how YOU have absolved yourself of everything you have done.

That’s about all I can explain.

This drawing is entitled Enough Is Enough, But Love Isn’t.
I won’t say anything more about it.
You can come to your own conclusion.
Art is more fun that way, don’t you think?!
Interpreting it for yourself?
Identifying similarities and attaching your own story to it?

70x100cm
Black ink on Fabriano

This the the First Big One I Ever Drew.
This came about after the suicide of my father, a not very pleasant experience for the family, and probably less for my father.
I found a big roll of Fabriano paper in a charity shop and emptied the contents of my head onto it with pen.

It’s about 2 metres long, maybe more, and about 1.5 high.
It’s done in various felt pens and black ink.
It’s a little bit worse for wear on the edges from being pinned to walls and from having been carted from house to house and now studio.

More detail from The First Big One I Ever Drew

A Space Cow

Simply because there was a lot of talk about space, recently, I drew a space cow.
It isn’t a cow in space, like floating around the universe.
It is a cow that needed space.
As of yesterday the cow has all the space he needs.
Fields and fields of space.

70x100 cm
Black ink on Fabriano
£800

The Cow Shitting Pretty

I was at my therapists once, talking about having some peace in the head.
‘I would like to stop drawing these mental black and white drawings and just be able to draw a picture of…I dunno,…a cow!’
‘Well, draw a cow then,’ she said to me.
So I did.
I drew 3 cows.
This one came second.

70x100cm black ink on Fabriano paper
£350

This is Hang My Picture.
Its based on a song by my friend, Tamara Parsons Baker. (listen)

I listened to the song on a loop the entire time I drew.
And I cried a lot of the time.
It’s a beautiful song and I’m giving the drawing to Tamara because it feels as if this drawing is nobody’s business but mine and hers, anyway.

70x100cm black ink on Fabriano

Said
Many things were said, that, in retrospect, would probably been better left unsaid 

70x100cm
Black ink on Fabriano paper. 

You, my friend, are a 4 letter word, and it is not LOVE.

70x100cm
Black ink on Fabriano paper 

Bang, Bang, You’re Dead…Wrong.

At least, I think you are.

70x100cm
Black ink on Fabriano paper 

This piece, finished just before I left Australia, had the working title of ‘Australia II’.
Remember when the Australian yachters won the America’s cup away from the Americans, the first time another nation had beaten them?

Such a pitiful chorus of ‘nah, nah, nah, nah-ing’ of WE BEAT THE YANKS.

Anyway, that’s history, and this piece talks about family history, history repeating itself.
While my mother was dying, I fell out with my brother, and as a consequence, 4/5ths of his family.
The generation previous, similar fallings-out occurred between my Mother and Aunt, generally with the involvement of my father somewhere.
65 and 70 year old siblings might have many years of ‘issues, just as 46 and 44 year old siblings might do.

Behind every new argument there’s an older argument egging it on.

70x100cm black ink on Fabriano

‘Thisonedoesnthaveanameyet’

I started this drawing the night I arrived in Mildura, while my mother was still only sick. 
I finished about 2 weeks later, a few days after she died.

It features my father and mother on their wedding day and explains some of the situation of their deaths.

This work has been purchased for the Mildura Arts Centre collection, an occurrence I believe would have made my parents happy and proud.

Black ink on Fabriano paper
70x100cm

Based on being involved in a kind of business transaction/situation with a man who turned out to be a FUCKING CREEP.
An unparalleled serpent, is what Saddam Hussein Called Madeleine Albright.
That’s what I’d call this guy, the Creep.

Creep
70x100cm
Black ink on Fabriano 

This got done because I was surrounded by people talking about selling, selling, selling, selling their art.
I mean to say, it’s all very well to sell, but that’s not why I draw.

I’m Trying to Tell You Something, Not Sell You Something.
Black ink on Fabriano
70cm x100cm 

There Are Stars in the Dirt, There Are Stars in Your Hair, There Are Bits of Stars Everywhere.

70x100cm, black ink on Fabriano

The Neville Twins.
Marcus and Adam are identical twins.
Their mum, Liz, asked me to do a portrait of them both, incorporating their favourite objects, favourite characters from films, funny phrases, and of course, their mum and dad.

50x70cm, black ink on Fabriano

My D.I.Y Universe

70x100cm, black ink on Fabriano

There are about 70 pages of the story to go.

Click here to buy the print version from completelynovel.com

Oblivious to the deceptive concepts of advertising, Patty heads to the counter to seek out the pretty vermiphobic in the photo.

Bird let’s Patty know the answer to the wall’s question.

Ever the literalist, Patty mistakes Marc Bolan’s Ride a White Swan as a command, rather than a song.*

*Photograph by Scott Nielsen

Bird comprehends Freud’s concept of wing envy.

Catching a glimpse of his latest ‘work’, Patty wonders if Uncle Graham might be back on the bottle.

Whilst enjoying a spot of fishing, the Patties, ever innocent, keep an eye out for the double decker bus Lauren has told them lies at the bottom of Witney Lake.

Power of the pig unleashed and James is laid low by swinophobia.

Before boarding the train Edward demonstrates to a nervous Pig how the carriages stay on the tracks.
Wanting more proof, Pig demands Joanna Googles it. 

Photo courtesy of Thomas Michael Corcoran.

Patty wonders why there’s a designated area for throwing little black Patties on the ground.

Patty and horse taking life literally.

Unsure of just cautious of the children she might have to be, Patty comes prepared.

Patty scans the instructions for the wrong turn she took in assembling Lenny’s Mr Potato head.

Too tired to have gone South for the winter, Bird ponders her options.

Man/Bird workout.

Regardless that the long-haired Patty is 2d and inanimate, Patty feels the urge to dry away those tears.

As Catherine readies her lips, Little Joe and Patty realise there’s no way she’s going to be able to blow out the candles on her birthday cake from that distance!

After an epic game of paper-scissors-rock, maxwell and Bird engage in a staring competition.

Patty searches in vain amongst the debris for an implement with which to rescue the hopeless Captain Scarlett.

In Turin, on a weekend break, little Patty admires the big ‘ginger’ Patty.

‘I think they’re brilliant. So unusual and so honest.’

Bill and Janet from Banbury 

“I bought the picture because it reminded me of the mighty boosh and it’s a great picture that i see something different every time I see it.”

Max, 15 

Nigel and Sophie, visiting from Bampton, talk about why they bought a print.

Sarah Carey talks about the drawings she bought.

“I love the complexity and utter randomness in Toni’s drawings. There is so much going on in them, that every time I look at mine I see something different. Depending what mood I’m in, certain things are perceived differently too. I never get bored of looking at mine that hangs on the wall in my bedroom. I love the weirdness.”

Hannah and Emily visit the studio.

Jacob talks about his drawing.

Brighton legend Mandy ‘Sausages’ Spooner talks about her drawings.

Hel, from Undersmile, says why she likes her print.

“The drawings of Le Busque give the impression of chaos amid profound detail and narrative. Stunning combinations of geometry, wit, size and extravagance attract the eyes to feast on the simplicity and wonder…wonder what else is in store!

i’m _ _ _ _ _ _ and thinkign i’m an art critic…if you wanna just put..I loves em…thsts fine!…xx.”

Anonymous buyer

Claire talking about what she likes about the drawings.

I work out of a penthouse studio, in a converted Social Services offices, in the Witney High Street, Oxfordshire.

My studio features inspirational views of the 99p shop and Burton’s Menswear.
I have an accommodating sofa.

Get in touch via the contact link if you would like to visit, or skype me-
toni.m.lebusque