First time painting a stobie pole

This week was a particularly creative one for me. I finally made it to join a group of people who are painting stobie poles around my suburb. They are doing a fabulous job and gradually more and more are appearing and looking great! Here are a few examples - 

I have been meaning to go along and paint as well but until yesterday haven't been able to make it. I was glad that I had the morning free and was able to paint my first stobie pole. 

It was a little scary at first putting the paint on the pole but I soon found myself enjoying it. The inspiration for my design is a picture book - 'Windblown' by Edouard Manceau. This gorgeous picture book is about 7 pieces of paper that are blown around by the wind and then transform into animals. At the end the reader is challenged to think of what they can make from the shapes. I made the little bird which I painted on the pole. 

Here's a few of the pictures in the book - 

I have read this book to a number of classes and then the students have made their own designs from the seven pieces of paper. The variety of ideas and the creativity has been amazing each time. It's certainly one of my favourite picture books. 

This is a Six Word Saturday post. To see how other people describe their week or part thereof go to www.showmyface.com. 

Sunday Scribblings - August 7th, 2011

I haven't participated in Sunday Scribblings for a while. It's good to be back. The prompt for this week is: pleasure. My offering is an adaptation of a couple of short pieces I wrote earlier this year. The pleasure of Sunday mornings. 


Sunday morning 


Window slightly ajar 
Light makes art on the screen 
My feet poke out 
From under sheets 
Tickled by a gentle breeze 
Outside - birds sing and squawk 
Sounds paint through my mind 
Thick blobs, blurred at the edges 
Trails of even spaced dots
In the lull I tune 
to the gentle, regular ticking 
of the clock 
A little slower than my heartbeat 
Cocooned between stretch and doze 
I ease my way 
into the day 

Six Word Saturday - May 7th, 2011

Remembered to wash the paintbrushes today! 

I have been attempting to paint a cherry blossom tree for Alysha. Her middle name, Hana, means flower or blossom in Japanese and she has asked for a large cherry blossom tree painting for her room. I thought I would practise on a smaller scale. 

I was quite pleased with the first attempt. Unfortunately though, I ran out of blue paint and needed to go over some where it had smudged. Actually, I attempted to add the Japanese characters for Hana and it didn't work. I had mixed blue and white for the background and didn't get it quite the same. 

Today I bought another canvas, some more paint and some paintbrushes and tried again. I am pleased with this attempt but not entirely happy with the background colour. The photo doesn't really show it that well but it is a bit dark I think. 

I remembered to wash the paintbrushes afterwards. I have a bad habit of forgetting to do so. They end up with paint caked on them or I leave them in water too long and they go rather disgusting. It's a good thing I mostly use very cheap brushes from Cheap as Chips. That can be a bit frustrating though as I have to often pick loose bits of hair from the painting. Perhaps I will invest in some better brushes sometime and then remember to wash them after use.