Puppet feet

Patrick the puppet hanging out by the wall.



Deloris with her nice pink rince.



Violet is a little bit shy.



Blue Peter the puppet really wants to make some art.

More sock puppets... they're taking over!

Sock puppet artists

Pollock likes to paint with his feet.

Philomena paints fruit and vegetables.

Pharaoh goes out and does oil paintings of fields in the countryside.

Pablo likes to humour in his painting.

Panthea makes abstract work which very few people understand.

Sock Puppet artists

Pandora makes curiosity boxes.

Pam makes sculptures of horses.

Paulo designs stamps and buttons.

Peaches the potter likes working in clay.

So far this week I’ve been madly making sock puppets. They’re mainly meant to be presents for newborns of friends, as there seems to be more and more of them.

They make a really nice present, if I can say so myself. Children can muck around with them for hours and because they do take a little time to master, it also prepares them for a career as Master Puppeteer. Sock puppets are also something that children can actually make themselves. The design is simple enough. And for those needing a bit of a challenge, you can make them more interesting by adding all sorts of accessories. The first sock puppet I made, for my friend Emma’s birthday, went completely over the top and had a dress, earrings, eye lashes and embroidered eye brows.

They are also for sale! In fact, they seem to be populair; I sold one almost immediately to a teenager (is the puppet going to be taken to a rave?) when I did my last Art on the Railings in Norwich.

Jolly swimmers in the sea

This weekend I have been painting a picture for my old friends of the Java Vegetarian Restaurant in Bradford, where I worked and lived with in the early nineties. My friends now live in Denmark and commissioned me to do a painting of them swimming the sea.

The weather was so good this weekend I wished I was swimming in the sea myself, but as it goes I have not been for a swim in the sea since 2002. I had a major ear operation that year and can no longer swim in the sea, as the deal is that I am not to get anything in my ears. Swimming in the sea is memories now, as is diving through big waves in Oz and scuba diving on the Barrier Reef and bobbing around at Sidestrand. Very hard for a watery person!

I will put the painting on the blog when it’s finished!

Candy Floss

I got a surprise visit from my auntie Alex and uncle Gray this weekend at my studio/home. Alex is my favourite auntie. She has encouraged and supported me in education ever since I was 12. At that age I was unable to read and write and thought my only career prospect would be the soap factory (career advisers at school actually told all kids that there simply weren’t any other jobs available).

Cut a long story short, I worked hard, got the grades to get me into art college and then spent my summers filling up the house of Alex with the art that I was making at college.

Auntie encouraged me this year to do a teaching in the 'lifelong learning sector' course. I've been teaching for years (and with great successful) but now everyone in the UK needs a 'licence to teach'. The course basically told me to do even more paperwork than I was already doing.

Anyway, Alex stayed for coffee and bought my Candy Floss painting. The painting is the only painting in the world of Candy Floss that I know about; a rare and exciting painting and an excellent choice!