Transporting transformation

(Shendi_Sam_%22Witnesses
‘Witness’ by Sam Shendi. In show at Adrien/Kavachinina, Paris

There is a bite in the air, the season is changing. As my eldest son and I drove to swimming lessons the other night we spotted trees turning from their summer green into autumn shades. We saw a miraculous site of birds glistening in the sunset like pieces of glitter floating in one contained space. My son described them like ticks using his hands and saying it’s how Baba makes birds, he was transfixed. The shift from summer to autumn always feels more significant to me then any other season. It’s a reminder that all things fade away. We also had news this weekend of a family member in Egypt passed away. Deeply saddening, life changing news. But, there is always change. A kind of transportation, from one realm to another. Transformation.

“When change visits your life, you can be sure things are turning for the better. It may not look that way in the very moment change arrives, but if you will wait a while and have faith in the process, you will see that this is true.” (Taken from someone-lost the reference)

I have been thinking about this as my link to the transportation of sculptures. We’ve done so many trips to London (I write we but it’s the sculptor, the sculptures). I just sort out the congestion charges and ‘wo’-man the shop. Over the summer ‘we’ ventured into Europe with ‘a man with a van’ for exhibition in Germany. The sculptor flew out to meet them and then back out to pack them up. In a quick turn around ‘we’ then had pieces going to Paris.

I had a whimsical fantasies of going as well. In fact with this trip the sculptor didn’t go. We relied on the driver taking them to the gallery and the unload and unwrap happening without my husband. The exhibition opened last Friday. But really that is much more cost effective than having to fly out to meet the sculptures on the other side. It’s amazing how memories can take us to a place though. Thinking of Paris transports me to a time in my early twenties, still searching for myself. I took myself off with a black and white SLR and not enough warm clothing for a February weekend in Paris. Consequently the cold somehow lured me into a ‘Coiffeurs’ and I came out with my hair red.

‘The Girl next Door'
‘The Girl next Door’ by Sam Shendi now showing in Paris

Well as I reminisce, the reality of this trip was that the driver had problems finding the gallery so I had to practise my very rusty A-level French with a hotel reception staff which our gallery contact number went through to. I couldn’t ‘unlock the language’ and was a little disheartened, when he asked me if I preferred to speak English and he continued to speak in received pronunciation.

Aphrodite
‘Aphrodite’ by Sam Shendi

Yesterday the sculptor was  down to London and back to take ‘Aphrodite’ to Passion of Freedom. At the end of the week he will be back down again for the opening and picking up other pieces to then go somewhere else. At the moment my husband is almost constantly on the road. I am loosing track as to where pieces are! The difficulty with sculpture is the cost and space of moving them from place to place. Transporting them.

setting up aphrodite
Setting up at Mall Galleries, London

There is something about the space that transforms the sculptures. Having space around them to be able to view from different angles makes all the difference to sculpture. Space, dimensions and time all have connections both in sculpture and thinking. Which links me nicely back to this autumn days which have come around so fast again. This year has past by me again making me reflect that I am still waiting for that moment of transformation. When I am totally in the present and not wishing away time or clock watching, waiting for the next milestone or event. I am definitely better at it than I was. The best of thinking is to reflect on creation ‘How am I’? Taking ourselves into account, especially when we don’t know what the future holds. If poetry, art, sculptures helps to give us those gentle remind us then it’s a useful vehicle. The chrysalises gradually transforms into the butterfly. Transporting us from one way of thinking to the next.

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‘Madame Butterfly’ currently at Newby Hall, Ripon

Portrait of an artist

 

Portrait

Oil on Canvas by 250 X 140 cm by Luca Indraccolo

 

This is not another art swap (unfortunately..more of that coming soon) but I had to share this. We just got an email through with an image of a painting produced by the most incredibly talented Luca Indraccolo. It is the one which my husband stood for last summer. It is a massive painting, oil on canvas 250 X 140 cm.

For me, this initial view looks mysterious and dark, Italian Mafia meet Turner. It also reminds me when I first met my husband and he said something along the lines of, follow and see how deep the rabbit hole goes. Perhaps this is what he is saying here, though there is more of a sense of foreboding in the painting which wasn’t true in our life. The contrast between the dark depths of the pit below his feet and the white misty landscape behind is stunning. The likeness to my husband is remarkable it looks like a photograph of him. I want to take a closer look so I really hope I can see it in the flesh on day.

If you would like to, it will be on display at ‘Le Dame’ gallery in London from July 9th to the 30th.

‘Big Questions’ for ‘I’ll Call you’. Art Swap featuring Sal Jones

For the first time in four years of blogging I have lost a post I started. Must mean I didn’t save it which is odd because it usually does it automatically, doesn’t it? But even if it doesn’t I can’t believe I closed it without a reminder for me to save it, or that I even forgot to click the save draft button. Must have been the pre-cursor to the way I felt last night and this morning, not good. So I have had time to write today  from my bedroom, feeling a little under the weather but happy that the sun is starting to shine and it is teasing us with spring. The view from my window a painting in itself. But I digress….

All of this has nothing to do with what I want to write about today which is our first successful art swap. We successfully exchanged ‘The Big Question’:

The big question
‘The Big Question’

with ‘I’ll Call you’ by artist Sal Jones .

So today I am going to write a little bit about her work. It is interesting to see the links and comparisons between painting and sculpture and of course the obvious differences.

I'll Call you by Sal Jones, Oil on canvas
I’ll Call you by Sal Jones, Oil on canvas

Sal Jones focuses on exploring colour and form expressively, aiming to engage the viewer with visually exciting work. Many of her paintings use bold and vibrant colours as my husband’s sculpture usually does. However, The Big Question, above is simple monochrome. I think you can tell when as artist is thinking about the way a viewer might interact with their finished work. It gives a more complete piece of work somehow.

The heightened use of colour adds emotional and expressive dynamic to the work. Many of her pieces have a vivacious quality to them. This one a little more muted, with moody blue tones adds to the story and the suggestion of a dark tunnel ahead.  For me having had a little experience in painting I love the gestural brush marks and the layers of colours. I also am fascinated by the way the suggestive marks give rise to the folds and forms of the fabric. So the light and dark make this piece.

Here is the painting hanging in our hallway, like it was painted to be there. The first things I see when I come out of my room.

IMG_4299
‘I’ll Call you’ by Sal Jones

As the figure is walking away you can almost put yourself in the painting. “By taking an isolated image out of context and using the dialogue as the images title – I’m hoping to create a friction or ambiguity in the reading of the image interpreted in different ways by different viewers depending on their personality and viewpoints and what they bring to their understanding of the subject”. I really appreciate this factor.

Interpretation is everything and an important part of my husband’s work too. Much of Sal Jones’ work features portraits which although I like and she describes more as ‘character studies’, in our small terrace house I don’t think hanging the face of someone would really work. Where as this piece has an abstraction to it because the figure can be anyone, I also like that it is a full figure as many of my husband’s pieces are the female form so there is lovely link there.

Indeed, both the sculpture and the painting tell a story. Like a pictorial book we are invited to create our own words for the images we see. Jones herself states that she is “interested in capturing moments of expression that portray the human psyche, of blurring the boundary between fact and fiction; also in the relationship between the title and image.” Titles are everything, as I said in my last entry about my husband’s laconic titles very different from some of the long-winded titles of many modern minimalist pieces. Sal Jones’ titles are the stories themselves, inspirational points for an aspiring writer.

So we are privileged to have a unique and precious painting on our landing and if you want to see her work you can do from next week at Espacio Gallery . Click the link to another blog entry about the gallery, as my husband has also exhibited there.

Sal Jones exhibits in:

Y Not?
31 March – 5 April 2015
Private View: Thursday 2 April 6-9pm
An exhibition in aid of International Women’s Day.

In a state of flux

Last week was half term, so I had no time to write, to think or to breathe. Obviously that last action is not true – I was blatantly breathing. However I am really aware that I don’t stop for breath when running after two boys and I am often in a “state of flux” when situations in life may go one way or another. Both  boys wanted to do different things at a busy museum on day one, so my ranting started and I was struggling for air. I suddenly felt the whole week could be a disaster. Luckily friends during the remainder of the holiday week meant we were all much calmer and passed enjoyably. I realised the importance of meeting up with others when you have children in tow. For myself though I need alone time to clear my head for words to flow. Half term meant there was no space in my head for thinking past what and who was going where and what we were all eating.

Added into the hectic holiday was the fact that the sculptor had a 4 day exhibition in London entitled ‘Flux‘ showcased 70 quality artists. This meant that mid-week he got up at 3am to take a wagon full of sculptures on the road. Unfortunately I didn’t go back to sleep after the shrill of the alarm, so I had a coffee fuelled day in the showroom with both boys. The sculptor however had an even crazier day of then journeying down to London, setting up the exhibition and then attending the private view which was packed with people. Madly they decided to drive back home directly after arriving at 5am. So the lack of sleep award wasn’t going to me. To compound that, two days later rose early again to go back down to London to pack up whilst his heroic companion Anthony Hartley drove across to Gatwick to deliver pieces going to Germany in March. It is all getting very logistical, with unloading to do at this end they didn’t get in until Monday morning. But no time to rest as the exhibition at Cartwright Hall needed taking time. I am not sure if you are keeping track of the time here but the point is a lot of moving and lifting and travelling on very little sleep.

Stop. Take a deep breath.

Life is a constant change, ‘ in flux’. Nothing is permanent. Everything is shifting continually but for the most part we try to order, constrain and control things. At the moment our daily lives; managing showroom, sculptures, exhibitions, delivery and collection of art works, emails, boys and school means that I, particularly need to be more fluid. My husband seems to manage these ‘states of flux’ much better. The art of decisive quick thinking.

 

flux exhibition
FLUX at The Rag Factory before the 500 plus people arrived.

 

 

Creativity and the every day

Imagine a bird trying to find flight in the wind, constantly flapping until it finds a pocket of smooth space where it can glide. That’s what I feel motherhood is like at the moment. I occasionally spot other mothers in the same flap and know that we are all in this together flying around trying to spread our wings. I have a few frenzied hours in the morning from waking until I drop the boys at school and then when I pick them up until bedtime.

Last week the sculptor took this freshly painted and slightly changed ‘Mother and Child’ piece down to Hay Hill Gallery, London. The other two in the collection both sold and sent to new homes.

mOTHER AND CHILD IN HAYHILL
‘Mother and Child’ by Sam Shendi. Hay Hill Gallery, London.

 

 

mother and child in hayhill 2
‘Mother and Child’ by Sam Shendi. Hay Hill Gallery London

These trips away mean I am managing the showroom and boys, school and home. Juggling the ball(s) and balancing them- aren’t we all. Last week the van broke down on the motorway (not really the fault of the van I might add) it was freezing snowy cold weather on the return journey so the pieces had arrived safely and thankfully he made it home with not too much delay.

With a renewed sense of calm after my weekend without the boys, yesterday after looking after the showroom I took the boys home and started making a healing chicken soup for the boys full of coughs and colds whilst they painted and created in the space around me. This prompting me to pull out all the craft books and papers which were looking a hideous mess in one of the kitchen cupboards out on to the floor. All this seemed manageable knowing the sculptor wouldn’t come back in and trip over it. However, in the middle of this organised chaos the sculptor calls having settled into his hotel room after a train journey which has taken him quite literally all day to get there. As he starts going into detail about the state of the wall papered ceiling and berating the interior decor, my youngest is sprinkling the glitter on the floor, the eldest making yet another animal from card and glue dribbling it all over the kitchen table (desperate measures to have a pet). I am trying to put the rice on the stove and I can feel my newly topped up patience from the weekend child free starting to boil over along with the soup.

After abandoning the kitchen for stories and bedtime I decide not to go back down and stay in the clam of my room. I read too late into the night, get disturbed by endless coughing and get up to see if child is ok, administer cough syrup and kisses. We all wake a little later than usual having had little sleep. I descending to the kitchen which now looks a little like my impression of the studio the day before and I wonder if we all are a little naturally inclined to be messy. Creativity and everyday life in such opposition to the fine finished forms of the sculptures now situated in this clinically neat business entrance where they were delivered last week.

the bow 88 wood st
‘The Bow’ by Sam Shendi. 88 Wood Street.London

 

body language in 88 wood st
‘Body Language’ by Sam Shendi. 88 Wood Street, London.

 

The yoga in art

'Mother and Child'
‘Mother and Child’ by Sam Shendi. Yoga pose: Sukhasana

 

…or the art in yoga, art of yoga, yoga of art? I can’t decide which is more appropriate.

yoga pose
‘Conversation with a bird’ by Sam Shendi. Yoga pose: Paripurna Navasana

 

I have moments where I make discoveries, like little light bulb moments. Ones where you want to stand on the roof tops or a mountain and shout it out loud. Well, I say that but I can’t imagine myself doing that even if there was nobody watching. The point is something clicks and then you want that something to click for everyone else. You know those things are going to help transform you. However, I have also come to learn that you can’t make other people have that click, they too have to discover it for themselves. I guess that is what makes us all different and what works for some of us doesn’t for others.

art and yoga
‘The pommel horse’ by Sam Shendi. Yoga pose: SvargaDvidasana

 

So using this blog as my mountain to shout from, my most recent discovery is yoga. It is helping me with a whole manner of things. Carving out time for myself everyday, exercise a little, focus on a better diet and helping me digest. It gives me balance. Balance in all things. The more we are able to physically balance our bodies and manage our breath it seems to give space to allow us to flow through the motions of everyday tasks with a greater ease.

stretch art
‘Discus’ by Sam Shendi. Yoga pose:Parivrtta Trikonasana

 

The pace of life is so fast these days that we need time to stop and connect to our breath, to be aware of what is happening around us rather than going through the motions mindlessly. Stretching out is something I realised I needed to do. We can focus on energizing ourselves and in turn this gives us more energy for others.

‘The gymnast'
‘The gymnast’ by Sam Shendi. Yoga pose: AdhoMukhaVrksasana

 

My husband’s work is primarily focused on the human body, the human figure. It is what sculptors have focused on for centuries. With the aim of minimising, you can see a progression through theses images from earlier work to most recent work attempting to strip down the body to a simple line. Each showing movement and flow. What is fundamental in each piece though is balance and a harmony of lines vertically and horizontally.

the bow yoga pose
‘The Bow’ by Sam Shendi. Yoga pose: Garbhasana

 

I gave myself a 30 days of yoga challenge at the start of the year which has helped me transition from the warmth of Egypt at the end of the year to grey January in the UK.  I would definitely recommend the energizing and enthusiastic Yoga with Adriene which I have been doing online for a while. Amazingly she takes live classes in an art gallery which as they are in Austin, Texas I am unable to get to! but in finding that out that discovered there are lots of yoga classes taking place in gallery spaces – what a great idea. Can’t find any in the UK though?

Body lang 1
‘Body Language’ by Sam Shendi. Yoga pose: Ardha Matsyendrasana

 

The images of my husband’s work are all of body movements I have roughly labelled them with a yoga pose, but they are by no means accurate. I am sure yogi experts would make corrections. Please do. Yoga was not the thinking behind the design of these sculptures but there are such strong connections. There is a beautiful mind, body, spirit link between yoga and art. Take the time to slow down and meditate on life, meaning, yoga and art.

Namaste

Doubts and dreams.

“I don’t believe anyone ever suspects how completely unsure I am of my work and myself and what tortures of self-doubting the doubt of others has always given me.” ― Tennessee Williams

All artists have self doubts.

My husband often has his doubts and uncertainties simultaneously with a very clear dream and extraordinarily clear talent. The moment of finding his style was a pivotal point. Not in no longer having those doubting moments but more determined.

It is amazing how just taking a moment to stop and observe can help you clear your mind. As I ate my particularly prepared porridge and looked out the window, I captured a moment. A bird perched in a tree finding shelter from the wind. How much protection it found? I wondered, as the tree danced with the movement of the strong gusts on this cold and blustery January morning.

Even within language we may not all be visualising the same thing. If we say ‘tree’, what type of tree is it. What are you thinking of? A willow drooping low and forlorn, a palm reaching energetically tall, a busy evergreen, a strong oak with branches stretching outwards. Is it a tree made out ladies legs? What concept do we have in our own mind’s eye.

bird branch
‘The Branch’ will be shown at FLUX , The Rag Factory. London. FEB 18th-22nd

It is easy to think of trees as strong and immoveable. As the numerous branches move like dancing arms outside it makes me understand that nothing remains the same. Everything is moving, flowing, shaking, changing.

I had a big writers wobble the other day after reading my brother’s newly formed blog. I had a sudden large wave of self-doubt as I compared my own skills with his, unfavourably. Immediately seeing his confident youthful writing style as superior to my own rather than thinking that it is just a different way of writing.

sketch doubts
‘A sketch’ by Sam Shendi

Perhaps a tiny slip of the deadly envy creeped in or a little bit of sibling rivalry but it didn’t last long. I don’t harbour bad and unnecessary feelings for long. Especially towards my younger brother to whom I am maternally overprotective of. I used it positively. It made me realise that I had to focus on my own style and my own direction.

Observing nature helped too, the bird in the tree. We all have moments where we doubt ourselves. The wind shakes the branches of our spirit a little. It makes us grow and develop. My brother who is writing about his recent travels, tells me he hasn’t changed. People don’t change. Perhaps travel doesn’t change us. I think though, if the experience doesn’t change us then time will. Travelling inwardly to the depths of our soul should change us. If we want to change the world then we have to start with ourselves.

with a bird
‘Conversation with a bird’ by Sam Shendi

I have read lots of beautifully brilliantly written blogs over the last four years, here are 8 I would recommend:

http://outsideairblog.com/                             https://knowthesphere.wordpress.com/

http://winterowls.com/                                  https://pathsofthespirit.wordpress.com/

https://ittosjournal.wordpress.com/              http://wharnsby.com/

https://haywardhelen.wordpress.com/         https://emmasouthlondon.wordpress.com/

“The greater the artist, the greater the doubt. Perfect confidence is granted to the less talented as a consolation prize.”- Robert Hughes. Perhaps. I guess it is one of those emotions, it is only human. ‘Only Human’ my husband’s exhibition at Cartwright Hall will end on 23rd February. So one more month to go and view it.

So my mantra for this month. Stop doubting and start daring to dream.

sketchbooks display
‘Sketchbooks’ on display at Cartwright Hall Art Gallery
cellar gallery
‘Only Human’ exhibition at Cartwright Hall Art Gallery

Sending Sculptures

'The Kiss'
‘The Kiss’

Just before we went away we had exciting news that ‘The Kiss’ had sold through Saatchi Online. This really eased our holiday and return back to business. The arrangements for shipment were made for Friday 9th so my husband had time to prepare the sculpture, flat pack it and pack it up. I was really impressed by his precision and arrangement for the packing. This series of work has always been my favourite but the fact that it can be flat packed to ship I think could be the way to go! After printing out all the necessary paper work, the DHL driver arrived on time but took one look and lift and refused to take it. The volume weight was larger than had been booked. I tried to rearrange it but we had to go back to Saatchi.

So a quick email to Saatchi USA was sent, but of course due the time difference they wouldn’t be opening until 5pm our time. So we made a few phone calls and left some messages. Finally we got a call at 9pm on Friday evening to check if the package had been collected. So it was just luck they called us. After emails and reprinting labels it was finally collected on Monday so yesterday we said goodbye to ‘The Kiss’ and sent it to Panama. Not sure that the driver instilled much confidence when he recounted another delivery of a precious stone horse that he delivered where the head fell off in the unpacking. Might have to do constant tracking…

At the same time that we were in communication with Saatchi online we were emailing back and forth about the next potential sale with ‘The Hay Hill Gallery’. Last week after picking up ‘The Family’ from Berkley square, whilst doing so my husband said he brushed by a gentlemen dressed in a long grey coat and tight jeans and the “stains of snobbiness” dripped on the floor behind him. HIs account of this interaction to me just one of his social observations that he continually notices. Instead of bringing ‘The Family’ back to Yorkshire as planned it got taken across to Hay Hill gallery and was left there, within 48 hours there was a potential buyer. The work is really on a journey now. It’s been a successful start to 2015 and with the sculptor being busy I am in the shop.  Hoovering, dusting and washing up have dropped to the bottom of my priority list. I wonder if we sell another piece we could afford a cleaner?

family sold
‘The Family’

Speech and sandwiches

This post has been hovering in the save box for to long- I had completely forgotten I needed to upload the images.

The focus of the half term holiday came at the end when my husband gave a speech at Cartwright Hall alongside members of The Royal British Sculptor’s society (RBS) who came up from London to talk about public art and my husband’s piece in the park which won the Public Art Award FIRST@108 last year. It had been sat neatly in front of The RBS building in London for 8 months and in the summer moved to Lister Park where it is now being physically interacted with heavily by the local community.

This issue came up in discussion, about the placement of public art and public response to it. We have been through a whole gambit of emotions in our reaction to people climbing, jumping , sitting and scratching on all three of the pieces there. Ultimately though overriding any upset and anger, it is a great opportunity to have the work seen, interacted with and is a huge stepping stone and milestone in the journey. It was a gloriously sunny day and a great opportunity for those who had come to the talk to see the work outside.

I was so nervous for my husband as we hadn’t scripted anything and I was worrying if he would stumble, falter or ramble. In my unnecessary preoccupation with his preparation, I totally forgot to do what I usually do best and think about food. It was a lunchtime talk starting at 1pm and we arrived in the grounds at 12, I had a bag of cheddars and a satsuma each for the boys thinking that would keep them going after a late breakfast. However,  I hadn’t anticipated how long we would stay the talk lasted an hour and a half and as there were a good 40 plus people there we had lots of conversations afterwords. So we were still there at 3.3opm and our youngest was practically passing out. ‘Where were the sandwiches??’ I had packed plenty for the big draw two days earlier but my mind just hadn’t moved passed the 1pm speech!

The boys sat beautifully and patiently whilst they listened to the talk and I was so proud of them and my husband. It was perhaps a good thing we hadn’t over rehearsed a speech, it was natural and humourous and he did really well at conveying what he wanted to say about his practice, the development of his style and the award he had won. It was a memorable day, next time I just need to remember some sandwiches.

NB: Exhibition Launch at Cartwright Hall this Sunday 30th November 1pm

talk 2 talk

Drawing upon Drawing

So much has been happening of late that I haven’t had time to finish a blog entry. I was thinking of merging them into one but will try to be focused and get it done in two.

The sculptor has had various interesting meetings recently which included a workshop for the first time which went well. It was focused on his exhibition and for the participants to create a sculpture but he wanted the group to focus on drawing their idea first. A large collection of work went in a restaurant in the middle of Bradford city centre, and that followed with a radio interview for BBC Radio Leeds. (Sound bite will only last for the night 3 days and he is speaking at roughly 40.43).

The sculptor talking about ‘drawing’ at the responses to art workshop
The sculptor talking about ‘drawing’ at the responses to art workshop

We all went for ‘The Big Draw’ at Cartwright Hall during half term and had well over 100 people draw on huge paper which we intended to wrap around the building but it was too windy on the day when we wee finishing. It was really interesting to see patterns in drawing.

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Four year olds drawing of people, The BIg Draw 29th October

Lots of 4-year-old drawing circles, dots and lines to represent bodies. Parents drawing houses, some finding inspiration from their family. A grandparent sat for a good while some fantastic shading in of a beautiful snail his granddaughter had drawn. A young boy drew his fish tank with amazing detail and a family came in to warm up from the park and covered their paper in ducks and birds and visions inspired by Lister Park. Upstairs in the gallery Tim Curits , another local artist who does lots of drawing in his own practise, they were looking at a college and self portraits and making pictures of themselves with newspaper. Drawing upon a lovely collection of Hockney’s drawings and college work.  Our eldest, feeling comfortable to roam the gallery by himself went to see what was happening in Tim’s workshop and usually keen to do anything creative declined out of loyalty to Baba downstairs. It was the first time for my husband to do this community art workshop event. We had thought that we would ask family to look at each other and draw each other , perhaps looking at the style of my husband’s sculpture. However, when its a drop in and the numbers fluctuate with busier times and quieter times it was just good to see people sitting and drawing and not being too prescriptive.

The gallery was a hive of activity and what was also interesting was seeing on one wall in the Hockney exhibition, all the drawings were hung at child’s eye level and there were little drawings of Hockney to find around the exhibition. So with the Big Draw event, Julia Donaldson exhibition and curators hanging work directly for children there is no better place or time to introduce children to the wold of museums and galleries so I totally agree with Jake Chapman and his quite ridiculous statement about children and galleries.

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Our eldest’s drawing at The bIg draw event at Cartwright

Children aren’t suddenly going to want to go to an art gallery at 18 if they have been ousted in infancy. Art and drawing is already squeezed out of the main stream too much. Drawing is such an important and valuable skill and something we forget to continue to do as we grow older. With my husband and eldest constantly drawing it is something that happens in our house naturally but something I personally don’t take time to do. After such a busy half term the house is in a state where I have drawers to wash, draws to put things away into, we have been rushing around so much and leaving a mess.

I noticed this morning a sudden drop in temperature, the skyline grey and wintry. Like shades of  newly sharpened pencils crisp and fresh. Time to sit down, wrap up and draw.