This Week

 I used inktense pencils on wet paper to draw wolves, moths and this girl with a stripey hat.

I have so much to do but am too tired to do much of it, so instead I decided to sharpen my pencils. I also made a list of the colours I have got in certain series along with their number. I find this kind of cataloguing very satisfying.

Dramatic grey sky, yellow sunflower, and red cranes look beautiful together.

Autumn in the treasure baskets at Forest School today.

The crab apple tree which will be lost soon to the new building. Very sad. Also the beautiful rose bush-I wish they could incorporate our nursery garden into Forest School which is being kept-it is just the other side of our fence. Although the new building is exciting to look forward to, I actually prefer old things-old established things such as our garden-we won't have that feel in the new outdoor area I don't think. So I am really pleased Forest School is staying, and I will try to plant lots of lovely things there as a gift to future users.

Autumn and Halloween inspired painting-I used gouache-just three colours, and a wide brush which was lovely to make lines with. The other page is my journal with the pencil list. I finished Erewhon and have been using a pastel sketchbook with different coloured ridged paper in.

Hot! (and cool) Colour

Hot tie dye for a dragon's tail. We are having a carnival at school. Each year group has a country, and ours is China. We are making dragons for a dragon dance. We have been given very little time to prepare, so have been making speed dragons. A large box, painted red, covered in pva glue, painted with yellow and red patterns, decorated with shiny stuff. If you say to a small child, ''Do you want to come and stick some shiny stuff on the dragon?'', most of them will say ''yes!'' Tomorrow the tails and faces will go on, Tuesday we will rehearse, Wednesday we won't do anything because Wednesday is 'transition day' when the kids from nursery go to visit Reception, and all 90 Reception children come to visit us! Fun, but noisy and hectic. Thursday I am striking, and Friday is the big day! No time for stage fright then!

Some of the beads came out interestingly dyed themselves. A few of the children helped me put the beads and elastic bands on the fabric. I would have dyed it at school but our washing machine is annoyingly broken.

More colour, from a mobile I made. I used to make mobiles in the nineties out of stripped electrical copper wire and things I found on the Thames (a different piece of beach to where we go now-and closed to public access about five years ago) I picked up loads of lovely glass pieces the other day and thought I would try to use them straight away. It is now possible to buy a beautiful and cheap selection of coloured wire in craft shops, which makes mobile making easier than it used to be! It was quite quick to do and looks beautiful in the sun.

The hoop is from a job lot I got years ago and have not used until now. I may make some more for my shop!

Lastly some cool colour-a buddleia branch and discarded purple lighter on the beach today. So pretty with the sand and the sage green of the leaves. Someone had had a huge bonfire but the branch had escaped the flames.

Colour Swatches

Photoshop colour swatches from photos I took on Sunday of colour combinations I liked.

Doorway

Directory

Rabbit

Window

Words of Inspiration-Colour

Colour-another obvious one maybe, like nature, but it does inspire me! Visual stimulation in the form of delicious colour is what I crave and love. I have favourites-that often come in pairs-turquiose and vermillion, turquoise and brown, violet and yellow-green. I love colour names that I had in paint tins when I was young-Rose Madder, Burnt Umber, Sienna, Ultramarine. Such evocative names. When I am looking at colours I like, it is a kind of satisfaction comparable to drinking or eating-but only certain kinds of food-a crisp apple or a sweet plum. The word delicious often comes to mind when I think about colour, and I like the way some colour names are linked to food-lemon yellow, chocolate, coffee, orange, salmon pink, peach, cream, plum, mint green. My favourite part of painting is mixing the colours-and finding those strange colours that I didn't set out to make but which just happened. So much variety. So many combinations.

One last thing-when I googled colour earlier I found this-a fascinating guide to html and colour.

Oh well, enough rattling on for tonight. I have a kitten to play with! Visit Yiota for more inspiring words.

Kitten update-things are going unbelievably well! At one point this evening all three cats were lined up at the food bowls. At another point the kitten jumped within centimetres of Tiger who only gave her a bad look, didn't even hiss. At the moment all three are being quiet and relaxed at various points around the sitting room. I still cannot decide on a name-Toffee and Alice both occurred to me tonight. Andy poo pooed Toffee but looked interested in Alice. Earlier he suggested Buster! I think it might be Alice.

Oddments and Advent Calendar

17

Click on the number to open the door..

Snow cloud over the playground. Party shoes. L. had a fantastic outfit on-a felted dress and jacket with attached flowers in the colours of turquoise, orange and green. It was beautiful! Her shoes are great aren't they?
Beautiful Brown Anne has got a poll on her blog, asking people to vote on their favourite colour. Mine is turquoise and it is not on the list so I didn't vote. However, I am going to go back and vote for brown today. Last time I looked it had no votes. Poor brown, it needs my support!

I did not like brown in clothes for a number of years as my school uniform was that colour and put me off. Then one day, I realised how much I like it. I had a lovely brown seventies shirt that was one of my favourite things for ages and which looked good with a turquiose necklace-brown compliments turquiose so well-another reason to love it.

All my Christmas presents are wrapped in brown paper this year-easy, simple, cheap and looks good with a bit of sparkly gold on the tags and a bit of brown or red ribbon.

Colour and Bird Faces

BLUE BIRD

RED BIRD

PINK LADY

ORANGE LANTERNS

I had a few birds waiting for faces, so after doing the two for the giveaway, I did a couple more. The little doll is from Greenwich-another market find. The orange physalis are waiting to be strung as a garland-but at the minute are just tipped on the side. They are so bright. I love the google image page for them.

Miscellaneous

Peter DeWit cafe in Greenwich. They do a delicious full English and have lovely colourful chairs! If you look carefully at the top right of the photo you can just about see the bird silhouettes painted on the wall near the counter. I always mean to do some of these at home as it looks good I think.

Lisa of Parallel Botany had a post on red, white and blue last week and I thought of her when I saw these enamel spoons in the market. I love this colour combination too.

This stall is my favourite one in the market. The woman who runs it goes to France regularly and buys all her goods in flea markets there. There are always stuffed animals and birds, small needlepoint pictures, religious items and unusual lamps and kitchen items. I like talking to the stall holder-she is slightly moany but in an interesting way, and, to my mind, she has excellent taste! I have bought a number of things from her over the last few years, though nothing today.

Look at this snake skin! It must be about eight feet long. I wasn't tempted by it, though I did find it interesting. There was a large plastic crow that I resisted as I could not think of a place for it. There was also a wicker dress form which the stall holder claimed was from around 1900. It was beautiful-very delicate, with an absolutely minute waist. It was also £80-and I didn't want it that much!

On the way home we saw these police horses on the way to the Charlton football match. Charlton won-they have had a good streak recently apparently!

I also saw this vast expanse of hoarding, around a site that used to be a garage-about five years ago when I was first driving. Now it is going to be something else-I wonder what?

I am also wondering how long this will stay blank. It is such a tempting expanse, just waiting to be filled with pictures and words-even I am tempted!

Garden Colour

The sun was out today while I was tidying my messy house. My garden is also messy but is showing its colours none the less!