Hazel Terry

 

The 'Wind in the Willows' challenge organised by the irrepressible Monty Lee gave me the boost I needed to make a very long book, I had cut out the elements for, but not constructed it, not knowing quite what I was going to use it for. 

We are on day three today, but that means I am now on the last of the illustrations I have been working on and I will no doubt be late for the next prompts especially as I am working for the next 7 days. 

I have, so far, used cling film to 'print' on the blank pages with acrylic paint, to make a base and then worked the images up with watercolours and further printed spring leaves, using mint and blackcurrant, the smell was incredible.  

The Wind in the Willows is not my favourite book, I don't know why, I never warmed to it, may be the selfishness of toad, quite probably the overt classism. However I have loved getting lost in the details of the nature and landscapes, on such a wide format and removing most of the anthropomorphic elements. 

I have to say an added joy with all of these challenges on instagram has been the fairly new possibility of adding music, which I just love. 

Instagram like many platforms has lost its innocence and joy over the years and meta harvesting images for AI is a hideous development, as has been its algorithm, which prevents organic exploration and discovery as ell as just being able to catch up on people you follow's posts.