……. this seems like the right time to begin a blog, share my ideas and thoughts. For what they are worth!
Finally, after many years of teaching, I have awarded myself a regular slot for all things creative. I have managed over the years to fit my art work in and around my very hectic and full on schedule of being an art teacher and Head of Art, but now in my 15th year of teaching, I have a day during the week when I can be in the studio.
People ask me, would you like to do your art full time, and not teach? The answer is always no. As much as teaching is exhausting (in term time it takes every ounce of your physical and mental being to keep going) I do still love it. It gives me a great sense of purpose and pride. It can be funny and infuriating at times, but fundamentally I love passing on my passion for this subject to young people. To see them grow over the years, especially when they continue their journey through GCSE, Alevel and then beyond, is a great bonus to this job. Art education is immensely important, and over recent years it has been pushed to the sidelines, with the importance of art being put beneath maths, english and science, but we must continue to fight it’s corner. If I imagine an education without the arts….. shudder ….. my school life would have been miserable!! And many young people think the same way. And where would we be without the artists, the designers, the filmmakers, the fashion designers, etc etc. Just look around you…. who designed and made all this stuff you surround yourself with?
But anyway, I digress, the other hugely important thing in my life is ART. It makes my heart sing. Viewing it, making it, talking about it. Without it, life would be grey. I mean, I like grey and all, but I also like my life in glorious technicolor. Tonnes of it. Especially every shade of blue you can imagine. If you look at my work you will see….. turquoise, cerulean, cobalt… it is a reoccurring theme. These colours engulfs all aspects of my life. I think I see life through turquoise coloured spectacles.
Anyway, enough babble…. back to the painting…..