Very excited as my second colouring book is now ' in stock'. Feel like its much more grown up than my "A is for Australia." Artwork more professional and consistent, the perforations are slightly different and the weight of the paper slightly better. I think I will tweak the artwork for "A is for Australia" before reprint. Constantly learning new things! All good. You can look at some of the internal pages if you go to www.colourmeart.com/uk   

An Alien At my table

I found my youngest child having a chat to her alien mate that sits looking at her at every meal time. I think he looks more like a bird but still I was careful not to say so....

" Imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited. Imagination encircles the world".............

Albert Einstein wrote that . Good stuff eh?

I remember seeing the face of a wizzend old croan in the wooden floorboards of the bathroom when I was a child, and talking to it every time I sat on the loo......
Its very easy to crush a child's imagination with organised playtime, strict school curricular, not being able to meander from what has to be taught. Not much time to smell the roses, play in mud or talk to the alien at your table.

This photo I took at a friend's farm at the weekend. The smiling rock. Now if I had had her childhood, I probably would have sat talking to that rock instead telling it all the secrets, joys and woes of my world.

Is White a colour?

Is white a colour? Most scientists will say black isn't but white is but an artist faced with a box of paints or pencils will say the opposite. What do you think?

White in most Western cultures signifies purity, light , goodness, innocence, virginity, faith and safety.
Its the colour of angels,  good white magic in contrast to black magic. In heraldry it stands for faith and purity.
Its the colour of hi tech, hospitals, doctors, sterility and cleanliness. See how many soap and toiletry products are packaged in cool white with blue.......... imagine how many adverts have scientific experts in white lab coats. Its the colour we trust as professional and safe.

Wearing white can make flesh look bulky unlike its black opposite. Contrastingly its a colour that indicates light weight, low fat, light as a feather.........

Spiritually its the colour of goodness and purity. A white wedding. And yet in many cultures is the colour of death. White lilies, white roses. Those more apt for a coffin wreath than a wedding bouquet. People that have been granted a second chance at life having had a near death experience often talk about going towards a white light. Heaven is always depicted as full of white pure light.

Where I grew up in the Wiltshire Downs, I think it must have been a magical colour in ancient times. The soil under the grass is chalk so white in colour when you dig down. Silbury Hill , the largest man made mount in Europe would have been a giant pudding of glistening white in great contrast to the rolling green downs. Likewise the calved white horses on the hillsides must have been very stunning. I still turn three times around on the eye of the white horse at Cherhill and make a wish whenever I am back in the Uk!

If you live in a climate lucky enough to have snow , a snow angel is always fun to do. This is a great photo of a perfect one.

Black Sheep or Black Cat?

So is Black always bad? And is in fact a colour anyway? Scientist will say black is not a colour and white is, whereas an artist or a child faced with a box of pencils will say that black is a colour and not white........ whichever way you perceive it, black and all its implications is a very strong force in our culture.

Black stands for authority and seriousness. It is the colour of power, elegance, formality, evil, mystery, death. It is the complete opposite of white in most respects. Do you see a black cat crossing your path as good or bad luck?

It is the colour of darkness, black holes, the fear of the unknown. The colour of Black death, blacklist, black days, black sheep of the family. Its the colour of funerals and grief in most western cultures and infact a Greek widow will often wear black for the rest of her life if her husband dies. In Heraldry, black is the colour symbolic of grief.   Interestingly white takes on this role in most of Africa and some of Asia.

Black is the colour of anarchy. Anarchists adopt a black flag, black clothing is hard to identify in a mob. The Italian Fascists Militas were called Blackshirts as were the SS troups in Nazi Germany . In a black and white situation, black invariably is seen as the negative. It's the colour of punks, goths, subcultures. The bad black magic, not the good white witch. The pirate flag, the' Blackbeard the Bad. 'Its inbedded in our culture wherever we turn.

However its not all bad. Its a powerful prestigious colour to wear. Think of black tie event or a fabulous music recital when every musician will wear black in some shape or form. A background to let the music sing forth from.  A black suit or  dress will make you look thinner. It is a 'colour that pushes down and away ' allowing other colours to shine out. It can make for an aggressive colour scheme but also make a strikingly bold one.

And lets not forget the All Blacks, the discovery of a black box to tell us with authority what happened to a crashed plane. Black belt is the highest martial arts level. The black snooker ball the most prized. And then of course the bottom line is if your bank account is ' in the black' rather than the red, well that is the ultimate respect for a colour that is debatable in the first place.

Orange . The laughing Colour.

So as we watch the leaves turning orange as Autumn creeps in and the spicey pumpkin soup recipes are hunted out, there is a lot of orange around us at this time of year.

Orange is a secondary colour. It is the combination of red and yellow. It's a hot colour but not as agressive as red.
 Kandinsky said " Orange is red brought nearer to humanity by yellow".

People who like orange are said to be thoughtful and sincere. It stands for joy, sunshine, enthusiasm, facination, happiness, success and stimulation. Its the laughing colour.

Buddist monks wear saffron orange robes. In China and Japan it is the colour of happiness and love. The American Indians use it as the colour of kinship. It's a positive colour, the colour of harvest, strength and endurance. Your orange Chakra is just below your navel. Said you be your creative centre.
Orange is a great colour to promote food and toys as it jumps out from the shelf  without the garrishness of red.
Orange food is great to both stimulate appetite but also keep nasty cancers at bay.  Citrus fruits,carrots, pumpkin are all great for our digestion but it's the power of the paw paw that is seriously under exposed! If you have someone you love in your life sick with cancer, I highly recommend you look into papaya power!
Have a great orange day!

Fantastic Plastic?

Having spent Easter in a small slice of wilderness where our only shower was the river, it breaks my heart to see water like this in Sydney's waterways so please excuse the following soap box rant!

Bottled water....... why? We have some of the best quality tap water in the world in Sydney. Nothing like the water that comes out of the tap water in London which supposedly has been through your body 7 times by the time you drink it . I'm all for recycling but it does taste revolting!

In Australia there is no real excuse. You don't have to wait for 'Clean up Australia day' to make a difference either. You can take a few steps, however teeny and your kids will learn by example.

Water is obviously the most healthy drink. Good for your skin, weight, teeth, wallet . Any model will boast how much water they drink.  Kids have to have water bottles pretty much everywhere they go . School. Sport. Excursions. I have learnt by trial and error what I find works the best.
The Sistema company do a great range of bottles and you can find them in the supermarket. None of the nasty toxic plastics and a NZ company that seems to be happily competing with China and doing a good job. http://www.sistema.co.nz/

Their drinking bottles have a screw valve at the top. They don't leak.They don't go mouldy like the straw top ones. You can screw off the top bit of the bottle and sterilise it in the dishwasher . I put mine in the cutlery basket so they don't go wandering. You can fill them and put them in the freezer overnight so they can act as an icepack for lunchboxes in summer.
None of this is hard and it would make such a difference.

Happy Easter From ColourMeArt

 Easter is one of the best time of year to get creative with the kids and have a bit of fun with colour. We always do an Easter egg hunt , sometimes with written clues and even using map coordinates now they are getting older.
One of the favourite traditions in our family is egg rolling. We first hard boil an egg each. Add some vinegar to the water and they seem to harden even more . Bit like baking conkers ready for battle!

Then once they are left to cool, you can start the fun decorating them.
Using wax crayons ( or candles if you don't have any) you can draw on them. You can use inks ( or food colouring ) for bright colours. Glue and beads, string or paper for the more deconstructive creators.

You can add your own style and preferably your initial to make them different.  Best dressed egg gets a small prize in our house but then on Easter Sunday we meet up with friends and do our traditional egg rolling competition. A lot of fun and if you have kids that are older than each other , this is a family tradition that spans the age difference between children quite well.
You set the course ( on a hill obviously), rolling the eggs one at a time down it. The winner of each round is the egg that rolls the furthest that remains intact. You keep taking turns until the ultimate winner gets the first prize.
The Crows and Ibis like their Easter treat left behind and unless you have decorated your egg with something really unbiodegradable , you can leave them to feast while you go for a dip to work off your chocolate fest.

Happy Easter!