Art Heals

Amidat is such a timid and shy person, to the extent of looking fearful a lot of the time and not even having the confidence to say when she wants to go to the toilet. She loves to draw, and has a picture that she always does. Drawing seems to reassure her and gives her a way to communicate-she shows her drawing to an adult and gives it to them or her Mum as a present. She draws two female figures, some wiggly grass, the sun and a flower. I have watched her drawing this picture and she does it fast and surely, in a certain order and with great concentration. Today though, she did something different. She was with me as I went into our office to get something. On the floor was a tub of small toys-McDonalds ones in pairs-all sorts of monsters, animals and figures. She was looking at them so I asked her if she wanted to play with one. She nodded and picked the little girl. As we went out of the office she said "I want to paint my dolly." She started with the face, then hair and pink hairbands, then went on to do her dress and shoes. I am so impressed with how she did it and her observational skill. But the main thing that I love about it is how happy she obviously was when doing it, and the confidence that it gives her to draw and paint. I know it is said that art heals and this is one example of it to me.
I have sat tonight and made ready labelled pictures in photoshop to use on a display tomorrow of lots of the watercolours the children have done, all lovely! We have an inset day tomorrow for planning and assessment. I have done the planning etc I need to, so am going to do display and learning journeys, thus saving myself a day in the holiday I hope!

Pairings

Miffy and the Books

What started as just reorganising my brushes, pencils, pens and little pieces of equipment so they are kept together and easily reached, turned into an all day epic of sorting and tidying my book shelves. Now, as far as possible, my books are organised into types-such as interiors books, craft books, doll books etc. It looks good-for now! I can also now walk down my side of the bed again as the carpet is revealed from under its book layer. Miffy is on a copy of a reproduction children's book about Mittens the Kitten. This area of the shelf is devoted to old children's books, which have developed into a collection. (In addition to the collection of modern children's books!)

Tulips and Pastel

The sun came out today, so I went a bit mad photographing lots of things when I got in. (At lunchtime-afternoon PPA hurray!) When I looked at my photos, the colour of this pastel sheet and the tulips seemed to go so well. This is a page prepared to then do a transfer drawing as mentioned the other day.

The drawing on the other side of the sheet, paired with a white monoprint over iridescent watercolour paint on black paper. These paints are lovely. They were really cheap in one of those reduced price book shops-a bargain!

Andy's boots and Tiger in the sunshine

I love the way Tiger is looking up at me with such a sweet face, and I like the colour of these boots.

Brushes and Medieval Lady

The brushes all tidily sat together in their pretty jug. I have moved the printer onto the floor to make room for my tools and it is working so far! The pastel transfer drawing is of a medieval lady carrying bunches of leeks. It is from the book I am reading at the moment-each chapter is about a different medieval character-peasants, minstrels etc. Very interesting!

Chairs and Dolls and How to spend Sunday

This doll is Victorian, and was on the Antiques Roadshow tonight. She was in this case as a display item and could not be removed. Her clothes are really detailed and her face is so sweet. I have not felt inspired to make a doll for a while, but I really like this one, and may be inspired by her. The expert commenting on this doll said that she was worth about £800, but she would be worth more if she was just the doll rather than standing in the case, as doll collectors like to 'cuddle their dolls'. I refute this assertion! Well personally anyway. I do like to pick them up, photograph them and admire them, but I draw the line at cuddling! There were also these chairs, which were perfectly doll sized. They were samples by a furniture maker, and worth between £700 and £1000 each. There were a few more but the picture I took was too blurry. Antiques roadshow is one recommendation for how to spend a Sunday. Especially a Halloween Sunday when the clocks have gone back and it is dark so early. I re- listened to a really creepy radio 4 play too, but other than that spent the whole day either reading or painting. Really lazy but relaxing.

These little dolls are from Greenwich market on Thursday-for a bargain price-there are eight of them in four matching pairs. I really like their simple shapes and have been painting them onto old postcards. I have collected loads of old postcards for this very purpose so am pleased to have done a few. The little chair was also from the market-a number of small plastic dolls house items were bought-one day I will get around to arranging everything in the houses.

I also made a crumble. I did not have enough fruit so it is a strange cakey/biscuity crumble-but tasty. My cooking tip is not the whole recipe, but how to do the fruit. It is from a couple of recipes I found and gives a toffee like taste. All you do is caramelise some sugar then cook your fruit in that. It makes the fruit even more delicious. You also add some lemon juice and zest. I also used allspice and ginger. I wanted cinnamon but we had run out. What the recipes do not say is that when you add the fruit, and juice to the caramel it will spit and hiss and some solid lumps of sugary brittle will be formed. It all comes out alright in the end though!

Here are the postcards. I love how the little bright paintings look, against the worn and faded backgrounds.

Do you think if I had to walk to work past this view of the Tiber in the morning, that getting up for work on a Monday would be any easier? Probably not. Isn't it lovely? I was surprised at the river-well the little bit of it we saw. Compared to the Thames it is so tranquil and small. It looks inviting enough for a swim-which I would not say about the Thames! Have a good week!

Little Paintings and Links-PSE and Bamboo Pens!

I put away the computer today, for at least three hours! I have had these three little canvasses for a while now, planning to do some little faces on them.

I love getting the children in my class to make faces, showing the expressions of the characters in stories we are reading. It is of course educational, but also really funny. They look so sweet doing little grumpy faces, in fact one of them was doing it so well I was actually worried about her for a second! These three all look a bit grumpy too.

I have a cardboard tube on the table which has not yet been put into the recycling, or my growing bag of stuff for school. I put the lens into it to take these, and like the effect.

Bamboo Pen graphics tablet. You can get a pen and touch one, but it is more expensive and I am finding using the mouse pad on my laptop, in conjunction with the pen, fine. It is very easy to use and to set up.

Kim Klassen-the first course I did was by her, and was really good.

Digital Expressions by Susan Tuttle. It comes with a CD with a small but good selection of textures, photos and brushes and has lots of good ideas. I am not sure if I would have understood it without the Kim Klassen class, as that covers the basics of photoshop elements and once you have that then you can play! The book does explain things very well though.

Fishbone Music and a Michael

This is the fishbone I found being played. Can you see my washing fluttering in the background?!As I played it, one of the bones pinged off, so it now has a gap on both sides. I love the sound it makes, and hope it has come across in the video ok.

The table has all my finds on it. No matter what I tell myself, as I look around our overcrowded house, I just can't resist fascinating little pieces of nature from the beach. I have a big de-cluttering plan for the summer-we shall see!

The other picture is a Michael. I call it a Michael because this child has such a distinct style that it was unmistakably his-even though I couldn't read the name. Isn't it a great picture? I love the way he has used the simple shapes, filled up the space so cleverly and given them such lively expressions. It was in the going home box for my class in the nursery so I asked him after school. He had done it for Ronnie in my class.

Report Eve

I have to start reports tomorrow. It is the most time consuming and tedious part of my job. If I had to do a few it would be fine, as I actually quite enjoy writing this kind of thing. I like to make them really personal, with little examples and quotes from the child. I think that is what I would like if I was a parent. I normally have to do about 20 at this time of year, which take me quite some time. This year, due to changes in the intake of children in the year, I have to do 40! I cannot spend as much time on each as I normally do because of the doubling in numbers, but I am not sure if I can write them in any other way. I shall see. At least if I start tomorrow I will feel better! I have been pottering this evening and doing boring old tasks such as washing, in between reading blogs and playing with Cassie. I have also been making journal pages using things I did last night at a great class I went to with Clare. We went to The Make Lounge in Islington, to a class on making your own rubber stamps.

We were taught by Louise, who is a printmaker and book artist. Here is her blog. She was lovely, and squeezed a lot into one evening. I loved using the carveable rubber-so much easier than lino! We had the time to make two or three stamps, to mount them and to try them out. I learnt a number of interesting things-my favourites being how to transfer my design onto the rubber, how to clean your inked stamps-babywipes! and how to use them in interesting ways, using part of your image, or using masks. The whole experience was very relaxing and pleasant. Wine, tea, coffee and snacks were available, and there is a lovely shop where you can buy the materials you have used. I was very excited to be able to buy some of the rubber, as I have not seen it anywhere else yet (though I have seen it online) Lovely examples of it being used here, and here.

This is a snapshot of how my desk looks tonight-glass of wine included-it has been a long week!

I made a face, a tulip and a tree.

Below are a couple of things from today. It has been beautiful weather this week and the insects are out in full force in the nursery garden. Today we had a lot of hover flies-fascinating little beings that remind me of aliens, the way they hover just in front of you as if they are observing our ways. I think I have successfully explained to about two children what they are and what hover means. Only 83 to go then! No-they are not wasps, no, they are not bees, no, they do not sting. Please stop screaming, they are not going to hurt you. etc, etc.

We also found a dead bee, which led to a good speculative discussion on the cause of death, as well as a sharing of opinions on bees-like, dislike, scared or not. Demi told me that she does not like bees, but adults do. When I asked her why she replied "Because they are big" (adults and bees)

This one obliged me by posing on a bright green leaf.

This is Halimah's amazing drawing of one of the centipedes we found yesterday.

Blackbirds on the tree. There are now tiny buds on it. It is a bit of an unruly tree which our neighbour is always asking us to have trimmed. We are having a tree person round for a quote tomorrow. I hope it is not too pricey. The blackbirds are from yesterday. I was waiting until they had gone to let Lily out. Today Cassie had her second exciting excursion into the garden. I saw a green parrot fly over while we were out there. You always hear them first. They have a very distinctive squeaky squawk.

Fish, Flowers, Felines

Tin Fish from Rye.
Imagined flowers-after looking at a book of Chinese watercolour techniques.

Handmade Easter card from my Mum.

Yellow ochre cover of

"A Treasury of Kittens"

which I noticed on the shelves last night.

Cute Kitten and Hangover Art

Another cute shot of the kitten. Each day with her here is a little journey of discovery. Tonight I have discovered that looks are deceptive! She viciously attacked my foot and I could not get her off! She did this on a number of occasions. It was during her mad half hour-you know that kittens have these? I was playing with her but it wasn't enough! She was like a little thing posessed! Then she ran over the computer and did something weird to the screen whereby there was no longer a toolbar at the top. If it had not been for one of the questions on University Challenge tonight, I would not have known how to sort that out. The question was about the F11 key-which I found out makes a full screen. I pressed it and hey presto my toolbar was back! Serendipity. Also, although Tabitha is a nice name, it has not rolled off the tongue this weekend so I feel it is not the right one! I just call her Kitten all the time. When I was talking to a colleague at work about this she suggested Kitty. So I am trying out this. Candace, if you are reading-is that why Kitty Boy is called that-because nothing seemed right? How do you people with kids do it?!

On to hangover art-a new art movement containing art created when suffering from a terrible headache, conversation flashbacks and underlying feelings of nausea, all brought on by yourself, with nobody else to blame. I was contemplating my sorry state, when it suddenly occurred to me how many phrases contain the word hang. What a useful little word it is! If I had been feeling more healthy, I might have managed to pictorially represent the words. This only occured to me at the photograph stage.

The second piece of HA is this. I was sorrowfully looking through a Sunday paper fashion magazine (our neighbour who has a shop donates us a load of magazines each week-I am never short of collage material!) when I came across this image. All the beautiful and serious(miserable) looking young models immediately got on my nerves due to my fragile state. So I decided to chop up a few circles, and cover up their annoying bonces with circular ones of my own. I much prefer them, and their slight weirdness really cheered me up!

I also like the Y-3 obscure label at the bottom-what it represents I have no idea and I think I will leave it like that in my head!

This last picture is not strictly HA, but was lying around nearby so got photographed too. I am not sure what I am goning to do next but I am thinking of lots of little rainbow coloured circles to contrast with the grey. I painted a little tiny kitten on her shoulder. Looking at the photo it looks as if she might be in some kind of an ice cave. Why she is there, I am not sure, but at least she has a companion!

From 'Bell, Book and Candle'

Pyewacket is the cat.

'Blue'

The painting I sold the other day.

I was happy to get a lovely email from June who bought her.

Styling Photos

I have been reading Decor8 today and I read a post about styling your photos. There were loads of useful links and I read a couple of the articles. I do try to put items together attractively-what I think is attractive-these things are all subjective of course. I also try to do this in my photos at times-though often I am just snapping whatever takes my eye! But-I tried harder today having read these articles. I especially liked this one by Susy Jack on Etsy. I did a painting yesterday which I am going to put in the shop-and I always worry about photos for the shop, so it was fun to try something different. Apparently (you may already know this) a shot of just the product is called a hero shot-as opposed to a styled shot-one with props of some kind that tell a story related to your product, or highlight an aspect of it or how you made it. Or-show it in context with other of your products. I am badly rewriting the article-it is very well written and interesting, so if this interests you, please visit!
Anyway, I tried my best with a few shots of the painting (product!) I like the one with the pastels the best. I was trying to create a feel of an artist's home, and in the book shots, how the painting could fit into a home. There are two hero shots at the bottom-I prefer the one with the collaged background as it links to the collage in the painting. I would appreciate any ideas/criticisms if you have any!

Ideas-contrasting the circles in the picture with the squares in the background.
As already mentioned-artist's home!
Natural, textures, circle of stone echoing circles in picture, old books-I just like these-not sure how it adds anything! I did deliberately put the orange label under the picture-to compliment the blue.
I like the warm tone of the wood-the top of the desk I sold-to be delivered tomorrow-the man who bought it was going to come on the bus and I felt sorry for him!Maybe I should do a picture with loads of circular objects-hanging on the wall-might try that tomorrow!
Back to work soon, no more time for all these extremely fun and important activities!

Should I do this, or that, or maybe that? or The Trials of a Multitasker

I know I am not the only one who finds it necessary to do more than one thing at once. Some boring things such as washing and ironing, some more exciting such as playing with molten wax. Some in the middle of these two extremes-getting passport photos done, listing a desk on ebay. (First ever go at ebay selling-wish me luck!) Yesterday was a bit like that too. I think it is the holidays. So many things pile up that don't get done during term time that the first couple of days are just stuffed full of activity.
Tomorrow though, will be different. I am off to the post office first thing to post William and also a painting I have sold on Etsy! I get very excited when this happens.
After that I am going to see an exhibition with a friend. I am looking forward to this!
Here are a few things my flitting habits have produced over the last couple of days.

This woman is off to the market. To buy fruit and vegetables. She can't decide what it is that she fancies. I used a white ink pad to stamp the pictures and my chalks to colour them. I only discovered how to do this a couple of days ago-partly from Clare and partly through trial and error. It is a bit addictive! I coloured this while on the phone to Linda (my lovely colleague)-multi tasking again-both tasks pleasant. William taking part in his final photo shoot before departure.

Picture started on the craft day with Clare and Cleo. I have been having lots of fun adding wax and using my little iron and heat tool to smooth it. A while ago I bought two little blocks of encaustic wax and I melted a bit of that onto the picture. I was really surprised(pleasantly) by the effect. I have a white one and an iridescent one. The white one is amazingly opaque. It is hard to photograph waxed pictures-but you get the idea. The piece of wood was from a skip about four doors away from Clare's house-a lucky find!

Picture two from the craft day. I started it to try this pen Clare had-a sort of spirit pen that enables you to transfer printed images to paper-I can't remember the name of it but will find out. It works really well. This picture was not looking good at all at first. I painted deep green and a bit of dark red, then I scratched it-I was trying to get a seaweed effect as I decided it would be called 'underwater'-she is wearing a swimming costume! Then I waxed her-quite thickly, poor thing. Then I dropped big blobs of white wax on it and that is when I really started to like it. Then I decided to see if gold leaf would stick to wax. It would! So, many experiments resulted in a picture I quite like.

Random photo from my sidebar dispay which I love, as it makes me remember photos long forgotten.

How school used to be. From two great books I saved from the bin at school. These turned up when tidying my creative supplies-in one of the paper boxes-not that I would cut them up. They are simple dual language books from the 70s. One is called "Jobs" and the other "My School".

This just looks like my primary school. I love the huge pile of boxes on the left-just waiting for big imaginations to turn them into something else. And I have a lovely feeling that the table on the right with the red cloth is a nature table. That was one of my favourite things at school.