MHAW - Day 5 | #19 Finished (22/05/20)

Today I spent the morning doing Yoga and the afternoon finishing #19.

I thought I'd list the bits and pieces included in this mixed media work:

A small-ish piece of brown corrugated card

Newspaper collage over the card

White emulsion and Fawn acrylic paint

Paper insert from a photo frame

Foliage and wall art cut outs (Robert Dyas brochure)

Old diary page

Cross stitching material

Sheep wool from Adam Henson's Cotswold Farm Park visit

A Nepalese stamp from my Dad's travels

Brick wall & Floor tile images from The Sunday Times supplement

Animal/Insect images from my daughter's homework sheets

Green netting from a bag of lemons

Text from the Business section of The Sunday Times

Used green tea teabag papers

A dried flower from my daughter's Flower Press

It will need to be framed in a 3D box-frame as the pressed flower isn't flush to the page and being so extremely delicate, this cannot now be moved. The net and wool will also benefit from the depth afforded by this type of frame. I just need to sort the measurements and see what I can source.

E was absolutely thrilled that I had used some of her school sheets. I chose to include the Trout because my Grandad was a huge fan of fishing and I remember Trout being one of his regular catches and he really loved them. He had a fish smoker and I'm sure he would often cook smoked Trout for the family although I don't think it was something I ever tried!

I also picked the Dragonfly because on one of our recent Daily Exercise walks we saw a Male Broad-bodied Chaser dragonfly down by the water at Pig Leg Lane nature reserve.

The Kestrel was chosen because we often see them on our travels in and around from Ryde to Whippingham and Newport to Thorness. Most memorably though was on Tuesday 24th March, our last day at the caravan, we saw one in the field beyond the football pitch when we were out exercising. It was actually F who spotted it and E managed to see it too. We watched it for quite some time as it sat in a tree and also saw it hovering like they do before swooping down into the field. It was lovely; I so enjoy the children taking an interest in nature and wildlife.

The Snail was included for no other reason than that the colours were in the right palette and the toad I had cut out was just too large and I could not find a place for it no matter how much I moved it about. The snail was much more accommodating!

Finally, I picked the Bat because of it's association with the origin of the Coronavirus. Being as we are still in lockdown and much of this artwork/project is being conducted under those tight restrictions and in the shadow of such dark times I felt it appropriate to add a note towards this in this piece.

Most interestingly was the text that I have included and how that came about. Often in mixed media, pages are taken from old books (or at least copied from books and then aged artificially) and then either drawn, painted, or written on. I only have a minimal number of pages in my collections which came from an old children's book. We saw several pages blowing across the pavement walking home from school one day. Much to E's dismay I picked them up and brought them home to dry out, knowing that I would at some point put them to use in my art (or 'art-it!' as my son would say) On this occasion though the text didn't fit the theme of the piece and being as we have no printer and the shops/libraries are currently closed, I had to make do with newspapers. I initially set out looking for a Gardeners page/supplement but serendipitously stumbled across an interesting advert in the business pages which describes the current situation, thanking the NHS and other services. It also describes their own staff in quite animalistic ways which fits perfectly with this piece. With language such as 'hunters', 'landscape', 'agile', 'fleet of foot', 'active' and 'adapting' I thought this was a perfect fit. The advert also happened to be the right colour as well. I was so happy with this discovery!

Overall I think this piece has surprised my family being so different to everything else I have done but actually they do seem to like it. The teabag papers have really aged it and E says this gives it a treasure map feel which I agree with, particularly the corner where the compass is positioned. I am glad to have put one of my Dad's stamps on there too as this breathes new life and longevity into his old travelling tales. The colours on the stamp are brighter than anything else on here so I may tentatively add a delicate hint of this colour elsewhere on the page but as yet this is just an idea.

This evening we have taken part in our second online quiz with E's Theatre group. This week we were called 'The Home-school of Rock' but alas we weren't winners of the quiz or the best team name. It was good fun though and all for charity. We are yet to hear which charity will benefit as it it up to the winning team to decide.

My yoga for today was 'Let It Go Flow', 'Reunite With Your Body' and 'Ahimsa Yoga'.