• Strings of things
    Strings of things

    I’ve been so busy the last month and a half, I’ve not had a moment to blog. Well, I have really, I went on holiday for a week in Tennerife, But I left the laptop at home and had an internet free week. Lovely – it can be done.

    I became a little obsessed by textures on Tennerife. The high Volcanic desert was eye-poppingly wonderful. every few feet the terrain seemed to change. Most of it seemed to be in the process of still being formed which, in a way, I suppose it was.

    We were staying across the road from the Botanic Gardens which provided me with such a wealth of textures to photograph, I had to buy an extra memory stick! This picture is of some kind of tree hanging its leafy things down.

    Otherwise I’ve been making lots of visits to schools and libraries. At Home I’m working on my new books about Monster Boy. I’ve finally done the covers and have this week got around to the inside artwork. I’ve Eight books ahead of me. A daunting prospect in some ways, but I’m getting very frond of the character.

    School visits have been interesting. I sense a sea-change in English Primary Education. Teachers have had enough of government intervention and are slowly beginning to ignore all the target setting. I think Government will too soon. It will all be allowed to slide back to the good old days when we used to teach kids stuff instead of rehearsing them to meet targets.

    I’ve started drawing in my sessions again and everyone is enjoying it. It’s like we are all waking up after the hundred years sleep of Literacy to discover again that art and drawing are just as important as writing.

    I’ve also become really interested in the Right Brain/Left Brain thing. Don’t know what I mean? Well, I’m working on it. I started out with a prejudiced against the left-brain dominance of our society, being right-brained myself, But I now realise that it shouldn’t be a war. We all possess the same facilities but use them differently. The trick is to work on the parts that are weakest. Putting the two sides together makes for a formidable brain. No point siding with only one half when you can have it all!

  • I set out eearly yesterday to get to the Wirral in time to visit the Lady Lever Art Gallery in Port Sunlight. Half an hour into my journey, on the M50, there was a bang and the steering wheel went funny. I managed to slide over to the hard shoulder and found that my front tyre was shredded.

    I don’t carry a spare! The garage told us that it’s the modern way. I carry a bottle of sealant and an electric pump. fine for a puncture, but not for a ripped open tyre!

    two and a half hours later I got taken toCheltenham where a brilliant crew sorted me out with new tyres and tracking. It took me seven and a half hours – I was so pleased to get to my hotel!

    I had a great day today at Seacombe, Wallasey and Bromborough Libraries. In Wallasey I was assisted by a young lady called Freya, the name of Viking Vik’s step sister. She was wonderfully helpful in providing all Freya’s actions. As her Dad is Norwegian, we had the odd bit od Norsk conversation, which confused everyone else!

    soap

    I got to the Lady Lever Art Gallery after my sessions today as the Library was only five minutes away. What a lot of stuff. Lots of pre raphaelites – proper paintings! a wonderful collection of watercolours and drawings by Turner and an original Kate Greenaway, never seen her work before – lovely. Well worth a visit if you are in the Wirral/Liverpool area.

    I’m now in Ruthin in North Wales in a lovely, comfy hotel for two nights before going on to Burton on Trent for two days – Shoo Rayner on tour! I should sell tshirts!

  • I visited Garden Fields School in St Albans yesterday and had a lovely time there. It allowed me to spend a glorious, sunny afternoon on Sunday, visiting the Museum and the Roman remains, researching for an idea of mine.

    As I wandered around the deserted amphitheatre, I remembered visiting it some forty years ago. My big sister would take me off on the bus to do “Projects” to fill up the time on long summer holidays. One day we did St Albans.

    I hadn’t realised how leafy the place was. I went there a couple of times in my teens, but on Sunday it seemed really spacious. Most of the town were out enjoying themselves in the vast Verulam Park.

    And now it’s raining, so back to the drawing board!