#valancy snaith

[peridotbelle]

One day, coming home through the woods, with her arms full of trailing arbutus and creeping spruce, she met a man who she knew must be Allan Tierney. Allan Tierney, the celebrated painter of beautiful women. He lived in New York in winter, but he owned an island cottage at the northern end of Mistawis to which he always came the minute the ice was out of the lake. He was reputed to be a lonely, eccentric man. He never flattered his sitters. There was no need to, for he would not paint anyone who required flattery. To be painted by Allan Tierney was all the cachet of beauty a woman could desire. Valancy had heard so much about him that she couldn’t help turning her head back over her shoulder for another shy, curious look at him. A shaft of pale spring sunlight fell through a great pine athwart her bare black head and her slanted eyes. She wore a pale green sweater and had bound a fillet of linnaea vine about her hair. The feathery fountain of trailing spruce overflowed her arms and fell around her. Allan Tierney’s eyes lighted up. “I’ve had a caller,” said Barney the next afternoon, when Valancy had returned from another flower quest. “Who?” Valancy was surprised but indifferent. She began filling a basket with arbutus. “Allan Tierney. He wants to paint you, Moonlight.” “Me!” Valancy dropped her basket and her arbutus. “You’re laughing at me, Barney.” “I’m not. That’s what Tierney came for. To ask my permission to paint my wife⁠—as the Spirit of Muskoka, or something like that.”

The Blue Castle, L.M. Montgomery, Chapter 34

I was about to draw her in a basic cardigan but then I realized 1920s sweaters were much more fun than that and went reference hunting. The photo is the one I used.

[oatmealnebraska]

Blue Castle Book Club: Valancy

So we've come from the "harsh, unsoftened side-light" of the first chapter showing Valancy this:

Valancy saw straight black hair, short and thin, always lustreless despite the fact that she gave it one hundred strokes of the brush, neither more nor less, every night of her life and faithfully rubbed Redfern’s Hair Vigor into the roots, more lustreless than ever in its morning roughness; fine, straight, black brows; a nose she had always felt was much too small even for her small, three-cornered, white face; a small, pale mouth that always fell open a trifle over little, pointed white teeth; a figure thin and flat-breasted, rather below the average height. She had somehow escaped the family high cheek-bones, and her dark-brown eyes, too soft and shadowy to be black, had a slant that was almost Oriental. Apart from her eyes she was neither pretty nor ugly—just insignificant-looking, she concluded bitterly.

To the moonlight of 3am 10pm showing Olive this:

Olive stared. In the moonlight Valancy’s eyes—Valancy’s smile—what had happened to Valancy! She looked—not pretty—Doss couldn’t be pretty—but provocative, fascinating—yes, abominably so.

To Barney describing Valancy as belonging in moonlight, twilight, and the dim, dappled light of the woods:

“Moonlight and blue twilight—that is what you look like in that dress. I like it. It belongs to you. You aren’t exactly pretty, but you have some adorable beauty-spots. Your eyes. And that little kissable dent just between your collar bones. You have the wrist and ankle of an aristocrat. That little head of yours is beautifully shaped. And when you look backward over your shoulder you’re maddening—especially in twilight or moonlight. An elf maiden. A wood sprite. You belong to the woods, Moonlight—you should never be out of them. In spite of your ancestry, there is something wild and remote and untamed about you.

To Allan Tierney seeing Valancy in the pale light of the woods in spring:

Valancy had heard so much about him that she couldn’t help turning her head back over her shoulder for another shy, curious look at him. A shaft of pale spring sunlight fell through a great pine athwart her bare black head and her slanted eyes. She wore a pale green sweater and had bound a fillet of linnæa vine about her hair. The feathery fountain of trailing spruce overflowed her arms and fell around her. Allan Tierney’s eyes lighted up.

So - fancasting!

As y'all know by now, when I fancast, I imagine I'm casting for a relatively low-budget CBC production, so I look for not-too-famous Canadian actors of approximately the right age. And for me, Valancy's eyes and her overall elfin vibe are key.

When I was looking up actors for Valancy (and Olive), I expected to be combing through lots of alumnae of the Degrassi reboot; what I didn't expect (not having seen the Twilight movies) is that there's a surprising number of Canadian actors of the right age who appeared in those.

Including Jodelle Ferland, who I've decided is my Valancy fancast. Apparently she started acting when she was two, so she has quite the filmography, most of which I haven't seen - but what I have seen her in, she's been great in. I can see her doing Valancy's whole journey, from downtrodden, to finally telling off the Stirlings, to happily blooming:

[everythinglucymaudmontgomery]

In recent years, every time I reread/relisten to The Blue Castle, I realize where my nonsensical ideas of the perfect, independently wealthy life comes from.

Side note: I really need to work on my illustrated Blue Castle project again.

[everythinglucymaudmontgomery]

DEEP BREATH and POST!

Edited to add: I don’t think I said it before but a HUGE thank you to @dustpileofherown for her encouragement to share.

[everythinglucymaudmontgomery]

Came across this graphic I made as I was organizing my computer and thought, “Hey! I should upload this to my Lucy collection on RedBubble!” Voila!

"The Blue Castle Book Cover Mockup for a Fan" Sticker for Sale by abramichelle

Designed this mockup of a book cover for a fan on Tumblr because this is the most amazing book and they always get the cover art wrong. • M

[everythinglucymaudmontgomery]

Oh my good gracious alive and all other exclamations of a similar nature!!!!! Could there be anything more insanely perfect and gorgeous than this in honor of dear dear Valancy???? ( @dustpileofherown )

I just found it in Pinterest and followed it to the original site it was posted on, Behance, and was thrilled to see it got even better with the artist’s description because this wasn’t just a random assignment but a project of the heart! {{happy noises}}

“The Blue Castle seems to be L. M. Montgomery’s least-known book, but if you’re a fan of her work at all, it’s worth sniffing out a copy. The heroine, Valancy Stirling, goes through so many transformations that deciding just which version of her to portray was something of a challenge. I finally settled on a passage towards the end of the book, where an artist comes across Valancy in the woods and decides she so embodies the spirit of the forest that he simply must paint her (artists make great book characters, btw. They should turn up more often in novels. Just saying). There was a tempting description of how the portrait was meant to turn out, so in the end I worked off that.”

[stitching-in-time]

Hey so idk if there is any fandom for L.M. Montgomery’s books besides the Anne books on here, but I just finished reading The Blue Castle, so I made this playlist inspired by the book!

Listen here on Spotify!

The Blue Castle fanmix track list:

1. To Build A Home | The Cinematic Orchestra

2. Willow | Taylor Swift

3. The Second Element 2 | Sarah Brightman

4. Don’t Carry It All | The Decembrists

5. Bloom | The Paper Kites

6. Colours | Donovan

7. Our House | Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young

8. What’s Simple Is True | Jewel

9. Somewhere Only We Know | Keane

10. Flower | Amos Lee

11. Dog Days Are Over | Florence + The Machine