A Silly Walk In Paris, original upcycled vintage painting

It’s a silly walk… but is it silly enough? 

Monty Python’s “The Ministry of Silly Walks” sketch  is still one of my favourites, and I have a stupid grin on my face whenever I watch it. Part of the enjoyment is the laugh track and hearing the audience lose it whenever another silly walker came on screen!   

The original painting was from the early 1900’s, way before Monty Python’s time… but the placement of the silly walker in such a serious crowd of people does capture that Monty Python flavour of introducing something silly to shake things up a bit. 

A big part of why I think they were so successful, is because they said and did all the things you shouldn’t do if you were a good “British” citizen. The dead-pan delivery of their jokes made it even funnier. With this alteration, I wanted to capture that playful juxtaposition of silly with serious, in an homage to “The Ministry of Silly Walks.”

The original lithograph print was titled “Moulin Rouge” by French artist Antoine Blanchard. (I do hope Monty Python will forgive me for using a French painting and not a British one!)  I found it at a thrift store… it had been removed from its frame because someone obviously liked the frame more than the art! I had another vintage frame on hand without art in it which suited it perfectly. 

"A Silly Walk In Paris" 
Altered painting by Heather Castles

This has been gifted to my husband :)