How to paint with no paint

My daughter is four years old. She has just recently moved halfway across the world with us to settle in a new country.  Part of moving to a new country is throwing out lots of stuff. Unfortunately her water-colours were one of the things which ended in the bin.  It was old and well used and needed to be replaces in any case.

Now we have settled in the new house, we have unpacked all our stuff and she wants to paint. No paint. 

My excuse of waiting till we go to the shop to get new paint, didn't go down well. She wants to paint now. She will make her own paint.

Here's here plan:

She cuts out small pieces of paper, colours them in with her colouring pencils and then soaks them in small amounts of water until the water turns to colour. Then she paints with the coloured water. 

No problem.

How's that for problem-solving skills?

Holiday update

We are 9 weeks into our 12 week school holiday. The outside temperature still averages at about 42C - the radio weather station is on repeat: "hot and sunny" everyday. The only change is in the humidity: moderate or high... We are also into the second week of Ramadan, the Muslim month of fasting, which in the UAE means no public eating, drinking or smoking during daylight hours. All of this means Dubai is not the most exciting place to be at the moment! Children has to be entertained indoors, and with most friends away ...



it looks like this most of the time..


The boys did get to spend two and a half weeks with their cousins in Western Australia, which they thoroughly enjoyed. They are both used to flying internationally but this was the first time they did it without parents, and it went very well! They consider themselves seasoned travellers now...

While they were away I repainted their bedrooms. This month marks the sixth year in Dubai and in this house - the longest we've ever been in one house - so some revamping is in order.

Blue for one room...



...and green for the other room.



The staircase also got a new coat of paint. It still needs some decorating which will hopefully happen in the next few weeks.



Look - there's an angel on the landing!

Art in the foyer

The A-level (year 12) art-students at my kids school had an exhibition of their works in the school foyer this past week. I photographed a few I thought was good. There was quite a bit more, but they didn't quite speak to me. All the work was accompanied by sketchbooks and descriptions of the creative process involved.





These artworks are mostly not something I would personally buy or put in my house but I can appreciate what they are saying and I am impressed with the fact that 16-year olds can produce work like this.

















May their art-futures be bright!

Art from Africa

My husband and his fishing-buddies went on their yearly Fishing Trip about a month ago. This time they went to Malindi, on the Kenyan Coast. They caught a lot of fish*, but came back with only tall stories, lots of photos and sunburn. And a gift or two..


The boys received t-shirts and I got a Masai-blanket, but the gift that stole the show is definately this painting Dad bought for his little girl. He bought it from a roadside artist in the town of Malindi.


I don't have any more information on the artist except for these photos my husband took of his studio/shop. The painting is not signed. The work is really good quality oil paint on canvas. He bought it unframed and we had it framed here in Dubai.


It now has pride of place in Anika's bedroom - and she loves it!

If you know anything more about this artist, please let me know.
*The fish were photographed and then tagged and released.

More butterflies..

It seems like I have been bitten by the butterfly-bug...

I can do all sorts of arty-crafty things, but I have never painted on a canvas before, so over the weekend I convinced my son to show me how to use his acrylic paints. I copied a picture of a butterfly onto a canvas and painted it. It is hardly art, it felt more like a colouring-in excercise, but it was fun.



As you can see, I can't let anything be without poking a needle and thread into it.

I started embroidering on top of the painting to add some texture.
I am not really happy with the way it turned out - I think I should have used thicker floss or more textured thread. Unfortunately once you poke a hole into the canvas it stays there, so I can't really undo it now...



I think next time I'll use a waterbased paint, or something...

I got the idea of doing embroidery on top of a painted canvas from mimilove. Her work is absolutely stunning, and in a completely different league from everybody else.
Check it out here and here.