What l have been doing so far in 2013!

I cannot believe it has been so long since l updated my blog! Shame on me. So much has happened in my life since the last blog!

Where do l start ....."well" as one of my young student says! For those of you that don't know l have some thing called "The Clock Gene" , which means my sleep pattern is the wrong way round. In other words millions of years ago (!), l would have been one of the family guarding the cave entrance at night.... then l would have slept all day! Well that has always been my problem and l have struggled to comfirm to modern life. Well now that has all changed. With help from the doc's in the form of a large dose of Melatin, a lot of hard work on my side and a huge dose of enthusiasm....l have done it. My life has change 100%. I now wake up at about 6ish in the morning and get up at about 8 and am at my studio at 9am and then in the evening asleep by 11 most nights. And the real bonus....after 40 odd years of awful depresstion.....it has gone!.....Touch wood.  The only down side for me, is l no longer have the time to paint as much....l used to paint between 1.30am and 5am every night and also REALLY paint when my depression was at its height. As l now own and run a small Art School l have much less time for me but l am SOOOOOOOOO happy!!!!!

I have been experimenting with collage and boxes. My older students (6/7years olds) have also been having ago. The one below is my work still in progress. I am really enjoying the layering aspect of it. A bit scarey to start with, painting over stuff already in place! But actually it is quite freeing! The first image is the top of the box, so kindly donated by Paper Chase and the 2nd image is of one of the sides.

The next three images are of some of my young ( 8mths and 3 years old) students work.

Those of you who are over 30, do you remember the Etch-a-Sketch? My students love it, once they have realised you can't swipe it like you do a phone or ipad!!!!

One of my "MessyArt " birthday parties in full swing. That image is of me, letting a 5 month old have ago with the paint. He loved it and giggled all the time he was on my lap.

This beautiful turtle was created by one of the 7 girls, who attended a 9th "Clay" Birthday party at my studio. They were all given some air drying clay and away they went. 

I love making these....lace balloons.

Can you guess what created this image below? Marble Painmting!

My intern has been taking a course on face Painting and l have been going along to be her model. This is me made up to look like a witch !

Then having some body painting created. It is great fun and l am also learning at the same time.

I have had the chance to do some face painting myself. 

I think these rusting penguins are just fantastic. Imagine trying to use these in eco dyeing! Ha!

On the way home from visiting my parents the other evening, we stopped at a small pub for a meal. We were sat next to a table with men and women dressed in full Indian or Cowboy attire! Made the rather "old fashion" meal more interesting!! :)

This is my latest art experiment. Inside this selotape shoe is a brass shoe "last". It is used as a base to design a shoe around. Now that l have finished this wrapping, l am going to cut the form in half and remove the last and seal it up again. Hopefully l will have a transparent shoe form. I am trying all sorts of experiments with shoe forms for a Workshop, l am organising for the summer holidays.  

Till the next time, which l hope will not be so far away...have fun!