School Days, Reminiscences of Pauline King

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Hi all! I thought I’d share with you a conversation I had with my friend Norah on her blog last week. If you don’t know her yet and are a writer or have an interest in education – or both – this is your chance to meet a wonderful friend and blogger, a knowledgeable and talented early educator and an avid supporter of writing prompts. Plus of course a chance to catch up with me sounding off about my old career and an ongoing passion of mine……. Do drop by and say hello to Norah and me and join in the conversation.

Norah Colvin

Welcome to the School Days, Reminiscences series in which my champion bloggers and authors share reminiscences of their school days. It’s my small way of thanking them for their support and of letting you know about their services and publications.

This week, I am pleased to introduce Pauline King, The Contented Crafter. Pauline and I have been online friends for a long time. I can’t quite remember where we met, but I think it may have been through Geoff Le Pard.

Pauline and I clicked straight away as we have a lot in common and share many similar views about education. At one time, each of us even contemplated starting our own school.

I wish I’d known Pauline and had the opportunity of working alongside and learning from her while I was still working in the classroom. Although Pauline says that she has left that part (teaching) of…

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(More Than) 10 Minute Sketches

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At different times throughout March I’d pick up my sketch book and pencil and try my hand at a ten minute sketch. Most of them, the faces certainly, stretched longer than the allotted time, but I think all were completed in under half an hour

This was my attempt at something a bit different based on the work of Karen Campbell who has a YouTube channel I found recently. I thought this was a lot of fun!

Early in the month I drew some dragons. I forget why I wanted to try my hand at them, I probably thought it would be a good challenge. I found some pics and studied them and sketched several, This is the one I like best, it’s based on one in the beautiful garden of Jackie and Derrick Knight. I was still way out of my comfort zone after so long away from the pencils early in March, but I quite like his toothy, friendly grin. However, by the time I got him almost done I’d decided that was enough of dragons and so he remains not quite balanced and far from finished.

I wanted some quick’n’easy quirky cats for colouring in and came up with these – the one on the left came first – both were both completed in about ten minutes each and were the only successful ’10 minute sketch’ challenges I managed all month

Based on something I saw on You Tube, I had a go at producing a template for doodling. Here’s the template

It hasn’t been copied yet to start experimenting with doodles and such – I got waylaid with life and then my back went out a week ago and has only just decided to come back home. The month of May may see some doodling…….

And that pretty much completes the roundup of sketch practise that I undertook in March – it’s taken me all of April to corral all the bits and bobs with a few interruptions along the way. And I completed a cardigan too – but still have to sew twelve buttons on. That might take another month……. I feel happy with my progress and worked through the ‘I can’t do it any more’ block that was fettering me and am ready to go pick that paint brush up again and see what happens there.

I’m also reading ‘The War of Art’ by Stephen Pressfield which is a most delightful get over yourself and out of your own way treatise on why and how we prevaricate and shoot ourselves in the foot constantly. In the spirit of full disclosure I should also add that book has sat on a bookshelf for some five years waiting to be read …….. You are not alone 🙂

Thanks for coming by today, I love that you did!

    Old Lady Reading

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    While time marches inexorably onward, I’m still busy regaling you with the results of my March determination to get back into some sort of artwork – any sort of art work really – my abilities having somehow mysteriously atrophied due to non-use over the previous couple of years.

    So, sometime towards the end of March I spent a couple of hours one evening drawing and colouring while listening to Juliet Stevenson read me more of ‘Middlemarch’ on Audible.  Eventually I produced this

    Feeling quite delighted with her and vaguely amused with myself I sent a photo of the drawing to a friends and family group on Messenger with the message ‘today I drew a self portrait. ‘

    My eldest daughter responded almost immediately: ‘That’s a lovely picture but I’ve never seen you in a hat like that.’

    ‘Picky, picky’ I responded

    She came straight back ‘It’s a lovely hat! The whole ensemble is gorgeous and I especially love the shoes!’

    There followed other comments about the shoes from other members of the group then we segued off to shoes in general and ended up with the death of Scott Walker and rodent stories quickly followed by cat stories and many, many photos of cats.

    I eventually went off to my bed and as I settled myself down to sleep I realised NOBODY had said  ‘Hey, that’s not a self portrait!’  😀

    Thanks for coming by today, I love that you did.

    ScrapHappy #1 April 2019

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    I’ve been meaning to join in with the monthly ‘ScrapHappy’ blog share for years – so many opportunities have come and gone and I never quite had my act together. But at last the time has come!

    So here I am, joining in with Kate over in Chiconia and all the other scrappy people all over the globe because I’ve been making bookmarks with my painting scrap paper.  Sometimes I make cards or notebook covers with the output too, this time it has just been bookmarks.

    When I paint I generally have bits of scrap paper lying about on which I wipe my brushes. It might be plain copy paper, it might be kitchen towel paper, it might be baby wipes used to wipe away paint on the canvas and expose a bit of the under layer, sometimes it’s a bit of proper heavy duty mixed media paper that went wrong.

    Here’s some examples – because of course I hadn’t photographed the actual papers I used here before beginning the process of change –

    No matter what it is there comes a time when the wiping is finished and the paper is full and of no further use. Once I used to bin them and grab a fresh sheet and start over. Then one day, when a full sheet was dry and I was about to chuck it out I looked again and thought that has potential and it didn’t go in the bin. Ever since then I have saved those sheets and when I’ve got nothing better to do with my time I gather them up and begin to play.

    Sometimes I lay down a bit more paint through a stencil, sometimes I grab a stamp and make marks that way. Sometimes I pick up sharpies or gel pens or crayons and start to doodle. Doodling is my favourite occupation.

    These ones were mostly made by laying down stencils and paint on the gelli plate and layering until I liked what I saw – or I ended up with sheets of virulent looking colours or oddly disposed messes – but look what happens when you cut them up and frame them out:

    ‘Framing them out’ refers to the noble art of edging each piece with black ink which all card makers and mixed media people are very familiar with. One is fully edged in the photo below, the other is partially complete

    Next comes a backing – here’s the box of paper and card off-cuts that are utilised for this part of the operation. They themselves are leftovers from card making and die cutting and sometimes are leftovers from other gelli print making sessions.

    I lay down a few different backing colours to see what I like. The process is generally careful for the first two or three, then it’s anything goes and lets see what happens. The photos below are the same painted piece on different colour backings. Do you have a particular colour combo you would have gone with?

    And finally after a couple of days here is a sampling of some book marks – this is a mere fraction of the amount I made in this session. I have bookmarks for Africa!!

    The finished painted pieces are texture rich and interesting. I make them smaller than I used to because I have learnt from my friend Derrick that it is fun to leave the bookmark in a book when you have finished reading it. Especially if you note the date on the bookmark. They aren’t for keeping, like books these are made for sharing round.

    Thanks for coming by today, I’m so happy that you did!

    If you want to see what the other scrap happy contributors are making, follow these links and I’m sure you will find the rest of the contributors

    Kate Gun

    More Teddy Bears

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    Back at the end of February I made the decision to pick up my sketch pencil and paint brush again and work my way back into some form of art – not the highbrow sort of ‘Fine Art’ produced by proper artists, but my sort, the playing around with colour and form and doodles and a certain whimsical expressionistic view of the world.  It had lain fallow for a long while as I got sidetracked down various other pathways and I was feeling disconsolate with my lot and that feeling is always alleviated with a pot of paint or an assortment of coloured pencils in my hand.  March, I decided, was the month!  I would sketch, I would paint, I would doodle and I would put up a post every week for the whole month.  And I did.  But of course there were some unexpected events and unexpected posts made during the month of March, much of my output was ignored in favour of things that really matter.  

    So now my friends – hang in here with me – it’s catch up time!  

    First up – Teddy Bears.

    A post or three or four back I showed you my first Teddy Bear watercolour painting, I’d had some prints made and turned them into cards. Here they are again, just to jog your memory, because I know you won’t remember her

    I went on and sketched out two more Teddys – handsome fellas this time. This is the first one, worked in alcohol ink pens on yupo paper

    • Teddy on Yupo Paper w Alcohol Inks

    I was feeling happier with the drawings. This bear looks friendly, I made another – with an even bigger tummy and trousers on this time – just to dress him up a bit more you understand ….

    • Teddy on 300gsm card worked in ink pens

    I had prints made and produced some cards

    They weren’t accused of looking slightly sinister at all this time – I got the eyes right – but it was gently suggested the tummies might be a little too round……

    But I quite like the tummies – they are comfortably familiar 😀

    And I have a favourite. Can you guess which one?

    Thanks for coming by today, love that you did!

      Siddy has a Birthday

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      We interrupt normal transmission to bring an important update….

      April 4th and it’s Siddy’s fifth birthday. He’s a big boy now and lets all those frisky young pups know it. He takes centre seat at the dog park where he entertains his fans – here he is with his pals Poppy and Pamela

      He goes drinking and driving, but never at the same time

      • Driving
      • Drinking

      Sometimes he shows off his tricks, like jumping through the tyre in the park

      or greeting his fans through the window of home

      He enjoys a good joke – like the one he heard last Christmas

      He loves his kitty

      • Shh mumma, he’s sleeping…

      Did I mention drinking?

      • Drinking

      He’s a bit of a poser and a playboy and has spread joy all year every year

      • Siddy
      • Siddy
      • Springtime

      He’s always such a good boy, though if you ask him he’s never quite sure ….

      • Who’s a good boy?

      And he is, of course, my boy, the best puppy ever!

      • Sleepy Puppy!

      Happy Birthday Siddy xoxo

      Charcoal and Pencil Sketch

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      I started this sketch a week ago – if you popped by to read the previous post you may recall seeing the beginning of it.  It’s a double page spread in my practise journal and I worked on it most evenings, often erasing lines as often as I sketched them.  I didn’t use any reference photos and it shows – and I changed my mind about which quote to use at the last minute…… And of course I’d do it very differently if I decided to make a painting…. 

      ……… but it was a good exercise and a chance to work through some of the emotions I was feeling.

      I’m hoping that next post I can return to plump teddy bears and other things that got themselves doodled, drawn, coloured or painted this month.

      Thanks for coming by today, I’m always happy that you did!