The simple pleasure of….

…paint!

Weekendiness

 

A final flourish of colour in the garden on this sunny October day. The Girls are having a weekend holiday with my parents to afford me some undisturbed time to finish artwork for an exhibition I am taking part in next weekend. It is my first since The Tallest was born. I am a little apprehensive to say the least. It’s a good thing though, I need to get back into the swing of making ‘my own work’. Crafting has always fulfilled that need within me to make things, but working onto canvas is me making making my own things. Getting it onto canvas makes it an expression of myself, it’s not practical, it’s not a gift, I have no one in mind when I make it, I just make it…

Having this much time and space has really given me a rare opportunity to completely switch focus and not have to work on the periphery all the time. No distractions, it’s a rare and beautiful thing. Had I realised just how few opportunities I would get to be entirely mindful of what I am doing, and only what I am doing, once I had become a parent. I may have appreciated it, and done it, more often.

That, is the beauty of hindsight.

Monotype Screenprinting

Whoops!

Well yesterday didn’t happen did it. The Girls and I got busy with an Autumn based craft session after school yesterday, so time on the computer was pushed to one side, but I’m sure that you wouldn’t hold that against me.

Recently at work we stumbled upon a simple and extremely interesting method of printmaking, the results were so immediate and effective that I really couldn’t wait to try it out at home.

I appreciate that not everyone has a silk screen sitting around in their home – but I would suggest that if you get the chance to purchase one at a good price, or even borrow one – and a squeegee, go for it! There are so many simple methods that can be used with basic materials. This being just one of them.

The images are drawn directly onto the screen, so you only get two, maybe three prints, but the quality of the drawing is just fantastic. It takes the whole ‘felt-tipness’ away if that makes sense. (And it’s extremely useful for birthday cards!)

I love the clarity of the colours and the slightly more painterly quality that the drawing takes on once it has been printed. Who knew felt tips could be so versatile?

I’ll be sharing our Autumn based craft with you as soon as I can get a good daylight photo of it – which certainly wasn’t going to happen during all of todays daylight hours!

A proper catch up…

Looking over the posts that I have written this summer, it’s fairly self evident that I haven’t been thinking much about the things that I have been jotting down here (except perhaps for the last one!), I realise that I did say that I would be more visual in my posts over the summer to try and at least simply share what I have been up to, though now that the nights have started to draw in and the children can be persuaded into bed at a much more reasonable hour  it would be sensible to presume that I have a bit of spare time on my hands to get writing. (Ha! I hear all those parents of young children cry – they know whats coming next!).  In actual fact it’s true the opportunity has presented itself on more than one occasion over the last week, but one post was the sum total of my writing, and that was more out of loyalty to my daughter rather than to the blog.

In an effort to assuage my guilt towards the blog I thought that I ought to have a proper catch up with you all and try and fill in the blanks left by the last few weeks of, well, for want of a better word, laziness.

We’ve been out and about in the beloved camper van quite a lot, we’ve spend plenty of it at a local holiday park, whose main attraction is the swimming pool. It’s a special, significant place for us, where we went after mine and the Tallest’s diagnosis of Marfan Syndrome was confirmed, for three days or so we cut ourselves off from our outside lives, hugged our beautiful girls and had a good weep every now and then as the news sunk in. It’s a good place to be, the Girls love it and it’s now inextricably linked to our family history, who needs more of a reason to spend time there?

We have, of course, also had the post camping coughs and runny noses to contend with…the Smallest has the monopoly on this!

The Girls have been flexing their Greenfingers, although the emphasis has been firmly on growing things that are pretty rather than edible. Although it’s amazing how well marigolds look alongside cabbages and beetroots!

As I was harvesting the broccoli side shoots, and handing them to the Smallest to place in a crate yesterday she turned to me and said

“You’re a very good helper Mummy.”

“Thank you” I reply “and you; are a very good gardener”

“Yes, I am”

Oh! to have her confidence. I’d be at Chelsea!

We’ve been riding The Poppy Line too, the girls love the steam engines, we have plans to take them on others, I have vivid childhood memories of many of them having ridden pretty much every line as a child on family holidays indulging my Dad’s passions for steam railways. I never could work out why we stayed in places that were so near a steam line, I always thought it was coincidence, of course I know better now!

The allotment has taken up a fair chunk of my time, as has work. I’ll be the first to admit that I have been finding the balancing of the two a rather tricky beast to tame, and I have to hold my hands up and say that I have been failing miserably of late, and am writing this in bed after feeling washed out all day at work after pushing myself too hard on my ‘days off’ ( The allotment looks splendid though – more on that another time!) I’ve now had a sum total of two days at home on my own without the children since school started, and I’m finding it incredibly hard to sit still, which was, in the main part, the plan. Perhaps the next time that I have to ring the Cardiac Nurse’s I might realise it’s about taking it easy sometimes and not always about ticking things off the list. Front garden cleared and roman blind in the Girls room repaired – tick and tick – Must stop this.

The hospital is the other place that we have been to over the summer holidays, both expected and unexpected trips. I have been having problems with Ectopic heartbeats, now solved with a medication change. The Tallest has been to see the Physiotherapist, and has been visited by the Occupational Therapist. She has new DAFO’s, is shortly to be fitted with Lycra Support clothing (something a bit like this) to help with her posture and back pain, and will have seat wedges and pencil grips to help with her posture and joint aches whilst she is in lessons at school.

She is, as ever, taking all of this in her stride.

When I read that I’m struggling to work out if I’ve been managing everything as well as I could have, it’s little wonder that I’ve been finding it a bit demanding, but on the lighter side of things it could be so much worse, and it isn’t, and that’s what keeps me going.

Then there’s the studio to sort out, as I have committed to making a piece of work for (my first in six years) an exhibition being organised by a work friend, next month. I can’t even take one step inside the place let alone make work in it, quite despite the fact that Hubby and I had promised to tackle it this summer so that I could get in there when the new school year started. And so the list grows…

Any advice on how to make the list my friend, and not my tormentor? (Don’t suggest throwing it away or then I would be truly overwhelmed.)

The positivity has started with Hubby finishing work early and collecting the Girls from childcare instead of me. Therefore leaving him able to help with supper and bedtime, unlike the up till now usual of coming home just as I am trying to settle the Smallest into bed. Not appreciated. Bad timing.

I’m beginning to think that less days at work might be an answer, but Hubby is fully convinced that I would just ‘do more’ at home. He’s probably right! At least we have tea breaks and lunch hours at work!

I can’t see home life letting up any time soon, so perhaps the work days do need to come down a notch. I’m going to think that one over (whilst I am at work for the next two days!).

Today…

I took my children into work with me…

 

I admit that it was only for the morning, but it really wasn’t too bad! (Why do I sound surprised, they really are good girls!) Coming to Mummy’s work is always an enjoyable experience, as I work in a situation where doing all those things that children love to do, are daily and commonplace, with a barn full of paper, drawing materials, glue and goodness-knows-what-else at their disposal, these two little girls were in their element.

And once again, the Tallest displayed her, very obvious, natural talent…

These were all done whilst looking at a few books from our little library, and I find it incredible that despite having two large, and rather full bookshelves at home. Working from images from books is something that we have never done!

That’s definitely about to change!

And I’m off to work solo again tomorrow whilst the Girls have fun with their Godparents, who have come to the rescue whilst my father is convalescing from what we think is food poisoning. I really feel blessed that the Girls have such thoughtful and caring people to share their lives with, and these tricky moments really do confirm that we made the right choice!

Monoprinting for children (300th post!)

Nothing like the view of a furiously concentrated child is there…

Monoprinting has to be one of the simplest and most immediate forms of printmaking, which must be why it’s such a winner with children. I love it too and use monoprinting in various ways within my own art practice. It requires very little in the way of equipment, and absolutely nothing in the way of skill to make it happen.

I use (thick, toughened, old windscreens etc) glass with my own monoprints, and this is what the Tallest is using in the photos, but obviously be sensible, don’t use framing glass as it is just too weak, and you can normally pick up a piece of window glass for a fairly cheap price at a glaziers, the last piece I purchased they even cut to size for me! I also have various thicknesses of perspex which is all I will use with the Smallest, I know perspex can be expensive, I’m not sure how I got hold of my couple of pieces, I certainly didn’t pay for them, but they are the only thing to use if your children are still pretty young, and it achieves exactly the same outcome as the glass.

You need:

A print roller

Block Printing Ink (I always stick to one colour for evening activities (it saves the arguments) but you can use as many colours as you like. These are probably the most expensive thing to purchase but will go a very l o n g way so are extremely economical in the end.)

Paper

Glass or Perspex

Newpaper

Smooth paper roll i.e. blue roll, toilet tissue / kitchen roll without embossing, or smooth scraps of cotton

Okay onto Monoprinting:

Before you start inking up and the like, I like to get the paper that we’re using into order, and place the un-inked glass onto the paper and draw round it. Giving you a collection of paper with rectangles drawn on them. This means that whoever is doing the printing will know where to keep their lines, and the print will be in the right place.

Ink up the glass on the newspaper, don’t be tempted to use to much as the ink goes a long way, keep rolling until the surface of the glass is completely covered and the ink has become dull and not so noisy when you roll it, if it is still very wet, you have used too much ink and will need to blot some of it away and then continue rolling.

Once inked up, lay down your tissue / roll / cotton, so that the whole of the glass is covered, get your roller, and roll over this several times so that a whole layer of ink has been picked up off the surface of the glass. Bung this in the fire / put it in the wormery / or wash it! As you are now ready to print.

Lay your first sheet of paper down. Trying your best to line up the ink with the rectangle you drew earlier. Tape or hold the paper in place.

And get drawing.

If you can, try not to lean your hand on the paper too much as this will pick ink that you don’t want off the glass, you can use rests, essentially a piece of wood with two blocks on to lean your wrist on whilst you draw, I only use these for myself and for larger monoprints, as I find the girls can’t get on with them, or they become distracted and use them as rulers, which isn’t really the outcome that we’re after!

Keep drawing!…

You can see in this one that the Tallest hand was on her drawing rather more that the one above.

There is no need to re ink after every drawing, you can just keep going until that much ink has been picked up that the prints are no longer clear, or the ink has dried up. If you want you can give it a bit of a roll after each one which prevents the lines of your previous print showing through, and also gives you an opportunity to do a negative print as well.

Using a burnishing tool of some sort, often technically known as a spoon!, rub over the top of a plain piece of paper firmly making sure you have done it completely over the glass, the heel of your hand will not provide enough concentrated pressure, and if you push too hard could just end up breaking it.

The result is this.

I often give these back to the girls once they have dried so that they can work into them with pastels or crayons…the possibilities as they say, are endless.

Happy monoprinting!

Opportunities

I see so much of myself in this biggest girl of mine. I am only just now truly understanding my parents pain at the sheer amount that having a creative offspring produces. Thank Heavens for recycling I say…

She is not constrained, or limited in any way, and can see the potential in so many things, even the opportunities to be had with kindling and offcuts from Daddy’s woodpile.

Daily I find evidence of her creative spirit, drawings, collages, constructions made from cardboard tubes and sticky tape. Displayed from mantlepiece and windowsill to floor and fridge. I have to confess that I am not always able to embrace her enthusiasm for making things, lately I feel less involved, less organised, less prepared to facilitate her creative urges, particularly when they are messy requests.

Perhaps this stems from working three days a week now, in an environment spent informing and supporting other artists, or that there has been an ‘almost six years now’ hiatus in my practice as an Artist myself, my creative juices, as they say, are not flowing.

But to be sure, they are. I am, as well you know, always making things, it’s just that recent years have not been spent ‘making’ my own work. I feel this. It is almost a loss, I feel not quite complete because of it, and things need to change. My studio, head height full of other peoples and my own junk is soon to be emptied onto the lawn and said junk refused entry if it doesn’t fulfil the requirements of being useful to me, to my practice, to my artwork…

I’m excited at the prospect.

I’m sure that there will be one new addition to the layout though.

A workspace for the Chip of the old Block. (and a waste paper basket!)

Art on the Walls

On Saturday I found myself in that rare and rather privileged position of being home alone. My head was full of ideas about working towards getting many of those Christmas gifts completed, but was spent in reality scrubbing the surfaces of the house to the nth degree, only to find that now, just half a week after the process things look no different. I must console myself that they are now, at the very least, sanitary, if no tidier looking.

I did how ever spend a little time up dating the walls and thought that I would share it with you. Those that know me already know, and those that don’t may well have guessed, that space is at a premium in this compact house so optimum use of every available space is a must. Take our stairway, which has had the same pictures and photographs hung for the last 10 years almost. Well apart from the two most obvious additions 5 and 2 years ago that greet you every time you bob under the ceiling to get downstairs again.

Ignoring that delicious picture of myself and my beloved celebrating our first ever new year together (’98 if you were wondering!) We now have a family portrait and tree done by the Tallest about a year ago – her ability and detail are second to none now, the tractor is testament to that, but the positioning of the figures, and that tree, Oh! that tree fills me with delight every time I pass it by.

Our house ( I wish!) on a hill with pets and a pink Tallest to keep order. I truly think my real softness for this is the declaration that ‘this is for mummy’ a treasured thought just for me!

And my all time favourite picture of me and the Tallest (and the Smallest, who was really rather tiny in this!) I am not natural or photogenic in front of the camera and this is a rare moment of both – taken by a great friend, I’m so happy to at last have it on the wall.

Lastly my Jumble Sale find of a couple of months ago, I have just about managed to resist the urge to break through all the carefully applied tape to get to the back of the tapestry, which I find equally, if not more, fascinating, than the front. ‘House and Garden Apr1917′ and once again if it was, I would be filled with joy to live in such a home. So much time and care has been worked into this piece of tapestry and yet I know nothing of the house or the person that stitched it, so much undiscovered history in so much of what we surround ourselves by. If only it could speak for itself…

Finding the time to get it all done

Bet you were wondering where I had got to eh? Well all this talk of homemade doesn’t actually get anything made, without actually devoting the time to do it.

For all manner of reasons, ones that I shaln’t bore you with here, I have been having to take a little time to rest. That unheard of phenomena in this household called ‘me time’, which has provided me with the opportunity to knit and make without the company of my two best girls.

Herein the dilemma starts, without wishing to advertise the things that are being made for Christmas, I wanted to at least share with you what I have been up to so I thought that I would try a small list of links – I haven’t been up to that much!

So for the Tallest – a Wooden Peg Weaving Loom, and her own version of the Adapted Swing Thing Coat.

For the Smallest – a Waldorf Doll and Clothes (which i’m making the same size as her current favourite doll just incase.) A Manly Vest (in the least manly colour you can find of course, it’s such a sweet and easy pattern I couldn’t resist whipping one up for her.)

For them both – an adapted version of Melody Griffith’s Striped Bootees, made to become slipper socks with suede stitched on the sole. MrGT may well get a pair too!

For MrGT – Another Cairn Hat by Ysolda as last Christmas’ effort managed to get shrunk in the wash.

There are also versions of these things being made for other family members / friends, but they seem to be the ones that actually read this blog, so I’m not hinting at anything until after the event.

So that this doesn’t become a post without images, which I loathe, I thought that I would share with you some images of my own Studio Based Practice. Something that I don’t mention in my profile for this blog, is that i spent ohh 8 years in higher education, all of it Fine Art, and while I accept that I haven’t been practicing all that much thanks to the rigours of parenthood. I felt it was time to get back in the saddle as it were, and start submitting for exhibitions, to begin with Salthouse 11, which is a highly regarded annual exhibition of new works produced by artists with a Norfolk connection of some sort. I would be highly surprised if I get accepted, but it has done wonders to re-ignite that part of my brain that deals with my own artwork, rather than my craftwork, which while satisfying my need to make things and provides me with the joy of giving homemade gifts, still slightly misses the physical fulfilment that making images gives me. Anyway enough of the waffle.

All these are on canvas stretchers, but the works that I have proposed for the exhibition will be held between layers and layers of wax, shaped as the church windows are, and referencing the church candles that already stand in the space. Putting the proposal together was an entirely cathartic experience and has really spurred me onto getting on with my own practice, and an extremely enjoyable process.

So onwards and upwards, enjoy your weekend, and I’ll endeavour to see you more than once in this next week…

Artwork

Things have been more than a little full here, the household has been on full speed ahead, but Thank Heavens for half term holidays. We have all just returned from buying paint to decorate the girls bedroom (and possibly ours in the process – it is a teeny tiny room). Plans are afoot for a mini-break Nanny and Granddad style so that I can get a lick of paint on without it being walked all around the house by my two little helpers. I’m looking forward to doing something for the girls that they will actually notice for once! The room hasn’t been decorated for 6 years so it is well overdue for a freshen up, I’ll be sure to take a few before and after pics, although I get the sneaking suspicion that the after photos won’t quite show a completed room, as there is carpentry involved in a couple of places, which isn’t anyones forte in this household…

Anyway, back to the topic in hand. Jumpers and hats are being knitted for Christmas. Mittens crocheted too. Peg Weaving Looms are being made for the Tallest, and also some beautiful dolls for the both of them too, so busy have we been in fact; that I have neglected to document it all for you, so hopefully this week, I’ll play a little catch up.

Our three rules for Christmas this year Homemade, Handmade and lastly Secondhand… Perhaps I should start the 3H’s for Christmas, anyone care to join me?

Look at that! I went off on a tangent again, what I meant to say was while I have been creating, the Tallest has been hard at it too, enjoying her drawing books that I made for her. So I thought I’d share a handful with you all.

She’s turning out to be a chip of the ol’ block that’s for sure.

Oh, and the squares on our heads in the red family drawing are our brains!! Not quite sure what was going on there but she was adamant that it was necessary!