I've written blogs about the importance of music within our world and our souls. How we need it to heal our tattered senses. What I haven't talked about is being an artist. I am musical, I have a fairly good ear for music and can hear dud notes, I'm also pretty good at singing dud notes! My voice isn't atrocious and I'd be ok in a choir but that's as far as it goes, what I can do is paint!!
I love colour, the more vibrant the better, and I'm drawn to lilacs, fuschias, sunshine yellows, turquoise. Almost a Mediterranean palette and yet my clothes choice and my interior design is more muted. I'm sure there's some deep psychological explanation! One of the things I'll miss about Dubai is the clarity of the colours here. The white villas offset against the vibrant blue sky, the cascading fuchsia bourgonvilla a dramatic contrast to the sandy paths and Tarmac roads.
I love patterns, I see patterns everywhere.Every shadow and every movement, every bit of bright light leaves a pattern. Reflections on glass, sun shining through curtains, beads casting their myriad dancing rainbow displays. Amazing.
I love watercolour, it's truly an incredible medium to work with. You can't completely direct and control watercolour, there will be times that it'll find that water trail and flower it's merry way, and that's definitely what I love most about it. The unpredictability of it. It's almost an instant gratification when you start painting. Every single drop and brush stroke will be unique, no two pictures ever the same.
I also love huge backdrops. So from one extreme to the other. For all I love the more confined size of a watercolour picture, I love getting a whole backdrop to paint. Life size images of forests and fields or cartoon characters and their imaginary homes. Full sweeping arm movements required and the control you need to get the perspective right. The mess on me and the floor is liberating. The complete opposite to my watercolours, which for all they are free still require more precision on a smaller scale.
When Ben and Bex were small I would sit them on a large sheet of paper and give them chubby crayons. They would sit for ages just scribbling away all around them. Then we progressed to finger paints. On a warm day we would camp out in the garden and again out would come these huge sheets of paper and we would finger paint for hours. Not only does it teach a small child manual dexterity but it's about the texture too. Seeing and feeling your creativity. A fantastic way to learn you colours, that and learning colours and how to count with smarties! Oh, and then learning modes of transport, colours and counting in one fell swoop... Three red buses, two blue cars, etc.
Sorry I'm digressing! But we all loved to colour and paint. It's the perfect way to spend some quality time with your children and the great thing is they don't judge you on a poor effort, they just loved you sitting and drawing with them. My mum can't draw but I'm sure Ben and Bex will agree that she drew the best stick people and animals.
I remember finding Ben in the summer house one year, he had quietly taken his finger paints one by one from the house, and set himself up the summerhouse happily designing on all the windows and the doors. What he loved most was not only the feel of the paint on the glass but the fact that he could see his masterpiece on both sides of the glass. I had a very colourful but happy 3 year old. I'm not sure how long it took me to clean the summerhouse or Ben but I know it was quite a while. I hasten to add that on this occasion his dad was looking after him whilst I was with Bex inside. I take no blame for the mess that ensued although I was the one who had to clean it up. This would be the same dad that allowed Ben to draw on one piece of wall prior to redecorating and couldn't understand why Ben thought that all walls were blank canvases. Indelible markers are incredibly difficult to cover with paint.
Bex was a little bit more proud of her illegal masterpieces; drawing in the dust on a neighbours car in Saudi, drawing on the bedroom wall at home and a friends house. So proud of herself that she would sign her full name next to whichever piece of graffiti she had designed that day.
The world is full of abstract designs and an array of incandescent colours. Everywhere you look. Look up to the sky when you're out and about. There is so much beauty in our world. If you can't look up then still you will see it. That tiny flower forcing it's way through the cracks in the grimy pavement, the window boxes throwing their vibrant colours onto a faded wall and window ledge. The underneath of the wings of the bird that sits two feet in front of you. The splash of colour of a bright scarf blowing against the black overcoat of the woman hurrying to work. Colour is everywhere.
Not everyone can or will be a great artist but we are all able to paint and experiment with colour and texture. Art is individual, what you might dislike another will love. It affects each and everyone one of us.
If music is the food of love then art is the rhythm of our lives.
I love colour, the more vibrant the better, and I'm drawn to lilacs, fuschias, sunshine yellows, turquoise. Almost a Mediterranean palette and yet my clothes choice and my interior design is more muted. I'm sure there's some deep psychological explanation! One of the things I'll miss about Dubai is the clarity of the colours here. The white villas offset against the vibrant blue sky, the cascading fuchsia bourgonvilla a dramatic contrast to the sandy paths and Tarmac roads.
I love patterns, I see patterns everywhere.Every shadow and every movement, every bit of bright light leaves a pattern. Reflections on glass, sun shining through curtains, beads casting their myriad dancing rainbow displays. Amazing.
I love watercolour, it's truly an incredible medium to work with. You can't completely direct and control watercolour, there will be times that it'll find that water trail and flower it's merry way, and that's definitely what I love most about it. The unpredictability of it. It's almost an instant gratification when you start painting. Every single drop and brush stroke will be unique, no two pictures ever the same.
I also love huge backdrops. So from one extreme to the other. For all I love the more confined size of a watercolour picture, I love getting a whole backdrop to paint. Life size images of forests and fields or cartoon characters and their imaginary homes. Full sweeping arm movements required and the control you need to get the perspective right. The mess on me and the floor is liberating. The complete opposite to my watercolours, which for all they are free still require more precision on a smaller scale.
When Ben and Bex were small I would sit them on a large sheet of paper and give them chubby crayons. They would sit for ages just scribbling away all around them. Then we progressed to finger paints. On a warm day we would camp out in the garden and again out would come these huge sheets of paper and we would finger paint for hours. Not only does it teach a small child manual dexterity but it's about the texture too. Seeing and feeling your creativity. A fantastic way to learn you colours, that and learning colours and how to count with smarties! Oh, and then learning modes of transport, colours and counting in one fell swoop... Three red buses, two blue cars, etc.
Sorry I'm digressing! But we all loved to colour and paint. It's the perfect way to spend some quality time with your children and the great thing is they don't judge you on a poor effort, they just loved you sitting and drawing with them. My mum can't draw but I'm sure Ben and Bex will agree that she drew the best stick people and animals.
I remember finding Ben in the summer house one year, he had quietly taken his finger paints one by one from the house, and set himself up the summerhouse happily designing on all the windows and the doors. What he loved most was not only the feel of the paint on the glass but the fact that he could see his masterpiece on both sides of the glass. I had a very colourful but happy 3 year old. I'm not sure how long it took me to clean the summerhouse or Ben but I know it was quite a while. I hasten to add that on this occasion his dad was looking after him whilst I was with Bex inside. I take no blame for the mess that ensued although I was the one who had to clean it up. This would be the same dad that allowed Ben to draw on one piece of wall prior to redecorating and couldn't understand why Ben thought that all walls were blank canvases. Indelible markers are incredibly difficult to cover with paint.
Bex was a little bit more proud of her illegal masterpieces; drawing in the dust on a neighbours car in Saudi, drawing on the bedroom wall at home and a friends house. So proud of herself that she would sign her full name next to whichever piece of graffiti she had designed that day.
The world is full of abstract designs and an array of incandescent colours. Everywhere you look. Look up to the sky when you're out and about. There is so much beauty in our world. If you can't look up then still you will see it. That tiny flower forcing it's way through the cracks in the grimy pavement, the window boxes throwing their vibrant colours onto a faded wall and window ledge. The underneath of the wings of the bird that sits two feet in front of you. The splash of colour of a bright scarf blowing against the black overcoat of the woman hurrying to work. Colour is everywhere.
Not everyone can or will be a great artist but we are all able to paint and experiment with colour and texture. Art is individual, what you might dislike another will love. It affects each and everyone one of us.
If music is the food of love then art is the rhythm of our lives.