Kinghorn: Whale Wall

Just a wee catch up on what some of the summer entailed. 

I was commissioned, and my daughter Freya Ledingham helped me, to create a mural on a very unimposing (low and long) brick wall overlooking Kinghorn harbour. 

Kinghorn in Fife is a great spot for whale watching and Ronnie Mackie has secured funding for an enhanced whale watching area, including our mural, a bench and a notice board among other improvements. 

Even painting the wall white was a huge improvement. We started with the whales and basking shark and went down in size through the sea mammals that appear here. Originally we kept to a fairly limited palette, but as we started on the smaller birds and sea creatures that changed, not all were painted in their true colours. 

As we worked we had many appreciative and lovely visitors and we noticed kids asking their parents what each creature was, sometimes they knew and sometimes they didn't so we labelled everything as we went on. The labels have become a mantra for people and kids walking the wall and it is lovely to hear. So if you are ever visiting, then pop and see the wall and see the amazing sea life and beauty of this part of the Scottish coastline.

Birthday Walls

As long-term followers of this blog will remember, when my daughter Freya was five we started a tradition of painting the kitchen wall to celebrate her Birthday.
This year as it is Roald Dahl's centenary year, the theme chosen was 'James and the Giant Peach'. So, over the last two weeks, giant insects have been moving in and a peach is being pulled across the wall.
Freya is eleven today! I can't believe this is our sixth birthday wall.

We still need to catch a lot more seagulls but all is good for now and the cricket is playing Happy Birthday.

Visual Consequences

A 'Giggling Hungry Bee' and a 'Farting Bearded Fairy' arrived in the kitchen on Sunday from Freya's hand.

Adjectives, verbs and nouns we have lists and  lists of them. When we are at a loss or want to play, we choose, using a  blindfold or rolling a button to randomly to select our subjects to draw.
It is wonderful to not have the responsibility of choosing the subject and work with the chance collection of words that consequences gifts you, though farting featured heavily this Sunday.

My subjects were a 'Whining Thoughtful Millipede' and an 'Angry Farting Ladybird.' Though I think the ladybird looks more embarrassed than angry.

Walking with Pirates

It is often difficult to encourage children to walk, so this weekend the 'walk' was made less traumatic for everyone by combining it with a hunt for possible pirate legs. There are eight years between my children and when my son was younger we used to do this and then make the pirates out of air drying clay, incorporating the twigs, shells and other found objects.
This weekend we did not have air drying clay, but we did have art materials so these are some of our pirates. Freya has given one of her colourful pirates a trumpet which was a dried flower that fell out of one of my old sketch books.

Playing with People

Yesterday I took a break from major projects, to work on 'People'. I like to be challenged by Illustration Friday's themes. This week it's 'people', though I find increasingly people are just uploading old work or completely unrelated work, which makes it less interesting to view the submissions.

Using a free magazine that I had been given in Edinburgh I made collaged people. I like the mattress lady best, I love the rosy colour and her upholstered body. 

I gathered more free printed material from the supermarket before Freya got home and she wanted to try it, so she made a lady . . . and then a sausage dog . . . and a burger dog!

This would be a good school project to explore the idea of 'you are what you eat'. 

Finishing the map

Traveling home today and Freya is finishing off the map, inspired by The Wizard of Oz illustrated by Sara Ogilvie.

Freya's Cardboard Elephant

This was Freya's elephant made from a nice bright yellow box that we had brought the shopping home in. In France everything seems like an opportunity. 

Birthday day is coming . . .

It is still two weeks to go, but we have had a great weekend making a start on Freya's Birthday wall, this year we are painting animals (and insects) with cakes. This is our fourth year of painting a wall in the kitchen for Freya's birthday, I love it, it always means spring is coming, bringing colour and freshness and I love working with my daughter.

Burns Day

It is Burns Day today in Scotland, so here is a picture by Freya. It is cats at a Ceilidh in their lovely tartan kilts and bonnets, have a lovely weekend.

Cooking Classes

Sunday was cooking class day. Cooking with Freya is an installation with endless painstaking arrangements of shapes and colour, borrowed as ingredients from a Melissa and Doug pattern blocks and board set,this toy has been an ever evolving companion to Freya for over 5 years.
Children at least mine always seem to have one toy that can be recreated by their imaginations into endless reincarnations,these are the best toys.
However the house is also strewn with pots, pans, plates, bowls and wooden spoons.

Ballet Cats

It is the last day of a very brief holiday, time to get ready for the very early and dark starts. There are many exciting things happening but lots of work still needed . . . so dancing on, here are Freya's Ballet cats from earlier in the week.