Guest Blogger - Lorraine Sime

At the moment I am fascinated with what I call 'misunderstood creatures'. This top spider was found in my dad's house. Since he isn't a fan of spiders, I was asked to take it outside. I saw an opportunity to do some drawings too.

The above creature is a hoverfly, although the poor thing looks like a wasp, so it really is a misunderstood creature.

 

 Drawing these creatures inspired me to write too, which I plan to make a concertina book combining the drawings and poetry. The first and third verses of the poem are:

Us creatures, misunderstood

discuss everything,

from humans to food.

Our safe place, a must,

is our retreat, to

escape their disgust.

Our poor crab, who's dead,

our meeting point,

was kicked in the head.

The human nerves frayed,

they tossed him aside,

he'll soon be decayed.

 

 The final poem has five parts and will be integrated with the drawings. I have still to play about with the composition before I create the final piece. Juat now I'm enjoying filling my sketchbook with these little bugs and insects.

The above post was by my very talented sister. She has started up her own blog (finally I here you cry) and you can find her under Lorraine Sime Artist. Pop along and say hello.

Playing at Art

I have a small dining area in my kitchen. It's really more of a nook. It was a cupboard which was taken away and the kitchen extended about 30 years ago and a dining table for four fits in there perfectly. It's a tenement though and the ceilings are high which means lots of bare walls to fill. Above this dining table was a rather large framed poster of a Paul Klee print which was left by his owner. Having looked him up I agree with my sister in that it wasn't his most interesting of his work (and his work is interesting).  My sister then suggested that I put my own work up there. I in no way profess to be an artist. I leave that for my talented sister. I'm a crafter but I did like the idea of messing about with paints.

As soon as I mentioned that I quite like Jackson Pollock my sister brought along a couple of books with a few excerpts. I then picked up a Taschen book on Pollock which I am working my way through. Now this man was truly talented. If you have a moment look up his mural. He did that in one night! I in no way profess to be able to do a Jackson Pollock but I used him as an inspiration and had fun while I was there.

My sister brought me along some paints, some brushes and some cups for mixing. I actually used up a few of the colours just in this one painting so maybe just as well she picked me up my own set. I used acrylics which I have used before. It was always going to be acrylics over oil. It mixes well to the consistency I was wanting, it dries quickly, it doesn't smell and, more importantly, it washes. Which is just as well because I ended up with green footprints across my bathroom floor (all gone).

The footprints were inspite of the bin bags. I had my new carpet put in today so this will not be happening again even if it does wash out. I started with a dark green and made sure it was nice and watery.

I did this standing while flicking the paint into the shape that I was wanting.

And then I started layering it up. Getting lighter and then going back to dark.

To my sister's disgust I was finished all to quickly. Not as quickly as she made out mind you but it wasn't exactly hours of labour. Meanwhile my sister was on the other side of the room working on real art (one day I will convince her to start her art blog that she has been talking about for years). It was fun though and I have a few more ideas that my sister is going to help me with. None of which involves splashing paint across my livingroom.

I do have a theme for my kitchen though and I wonder if you can guess what it is? Like it or hate it I have my first item hanging on my walls.