Busylizzie Art

Taunton Live Sock Extravaganza Exhibition is ready to go…

Workshops by me, Liz, of Busylizzie Art and Go Create Taunton, have taken over 600 children in ten Primary Schools, on creative journeys under the umbrella theme of “Socks” between May 23rd and June 24th, 2016…

Unconvinced, when the idea was first mooted by Chris Dart of CiCCiC, I sat down to doodle my first ideas and within half an hour, I was hooked into the unlimited creative possibilities it unleashed…The “Amazing Sock Extravaganza” was to be a creative vehicle by which to raise awareness of our forthcoming Taunton Live 2016 Festival of the Performing and Creative Arts and our Creative Innovation Centre.

The project was launched at a twilight meeting for teachers in March, at CiCCiC, where examples I had created were displayed, followed by visits to ten schools to discuss individual school’s thoughts on how we could combine topics already scheduled, with socks. The “Amazing Taunton Live Sock Extravaganza” was stirring…

Workshops covering art skills from mark-making, colour-mixing and watercolour painting, to clay work and 2 colour block printing were meticulously planned and delivered over the space of about 3 weeks working alongside classteachers or with groups of the youngest children.

Socks was the buzzword and great art works were emerging, especially where I combined looking closely at the work of artist/illustrator Daniel Mackie. Having picked up one of his cards in a small creative shop in Ilminster, I encouraged the children at Parkfield Primary School, to explore his work on the iPads and to see the possibilities of combining his concept of identifiable outline shapes of animals and creatures, containing the detail of their environment, with painting socks they had designed for either the Olympic Countries or a variety of occupations. The results were quite stunning and when I tweeted Daniel himself and got a response – we were blown away. Not only did this very generous artist comment and respond, but he sent the children cards as momentos.

This last week might have felt relaxed in comparison to the last three and a bit weeks of loading up my car with different materials every day and heading out to schools across Taunton Deane, but I was sitting in the space at CiCCiC picturing each school’s artistic contribution and planning how and where to show it off to its best advantage…

Hampered by another exhibition not coming down until Thursday 30th at 4 pm, tension was building over how on earth I would have everything ready for the opening on July 1st… Fellow creatives Jim, Jenny and Ian, mucked in (along with Laila from Selworthy and Nick from Oake B&N who sorted their corners) and the exhibition began to take shape over the course of about 4 hours.

Returning early on Friday July 1st, around 7.20am, I put in a further 4 hours until I was happy with the final look… 39 A4 canvases were expertly hung by Chris (original ideas man) and Richard (CiCCiC) climbed very high up a long ladder to secure the canopy for one of the exhibits; a circus themed installation by primary age children at Selworthy special school.

The Amazing Taunton Live Sock Extravaganza Exhibition is ready to roll…

Visit the Creative Innivations Centre CIC, Paul St, Taunton to see the socks….until July 8th…

Taunton Live 2016 Amazing Sock Extravaganza…

Workshops are happening in several Primary Schools in Taunton Deane over the coming weeks in the lead-up to Taunton Live 2016, Summer Festival of the Creative & Performing Arts…

This last week saw Liz, of Busylizzie Art, in the role of Schools’ Coordinator for Go Create, Taunton working in 5 schools and delivering workshops and inspiring children to be involved in the creative process. Children from foundation stage to Y6 and also at Selworthy Special School, have experienced activities ranging from colour-mixing and mark-making to printing, basic wax-resist and clay work, producing “Sock-related Art” around a variety of themes and topics….

Below is a selection of two-colour printing from Creech St Michael Y 5 children from Friday’s workshop…

More about Taunton Live can be found at:

http://www.tauntonlive.co.uk 

The Sock Art will be exhibited at Creative Innovations Centre, Paul Street, Taunton from 1-8th July.

The Amazing Taunton Live Sock Extravaganza 2016…

In the run-up to Taunton Live Arts Festival 2016, (18-24th July) Busylizzie Art is delivering free-to-schools workshops to more than 10 Taunton Deane Primary schools to generate artwork for the “Amazing Sock Extravaganza” exhibition at the Creative Innovation Centre CIC…1-8th July.

Wednesday was a brilliant day with Y6 at Parkfield Primary working through the whole design process from initial ideas…

to researching and collecting information,

studying a living working watercolour artist & illustrator, Daniel Mackie…

learning how watercolour paint works…

and coming up with a final design for a sock.

That was day one with Y6 and I was ‘buzzing’ to return the next day, Thursday, to help the children work on their actual watercolour paintings….Socks for GB, Italy, Spain, France and USA for the Olympic Games, socks for artists, environmentalists, car enthusiasts, to name but a few.

These children were inspired, engaged and a pleasure to work with!

…..and to top the lot, Daniel Mackie himself, has liked the tweets and has been very complimentary about the work of these 10 & 11 year old children, with Busylizzie Art…

Marauder’s style Map depicts their very own love story …

Busylizzie Art has created something truly ‘Bespoke and personal’ for this lovely couple’s forthcoming marriage at the beautiful Hornsby Mill, near Chard, Somerset.

Their romantic story, which developed from a first date in Taunton to the proposal at Harry Potter World, and was interwoven with love tokens and fictional links to the JK Rowling tales, is depicted in the meticulously hand drawn, sepia map. This is a wedding invitation with a difference….nothing off-the-peg for this young couple, it needed to be original, to tell their very own love-story…

From first meeting, to handing over the carefully packaged stationery, this has been a very special project for me… when life’s journey is not easy, or straightforward, it makes you want to help all you can and this was no exception. In the end, I was very pleased and proud to be able to present my couple with something really special which, I know, was exactly what they’d hoped for.

If you are looking for wedding stationery with a specific theme or something you have imagined, and you don’t want what everyone else is buying online, contact me, Liz, and Busylizzie Art will do you proud too!

So, when you look at my “Wedding invitations and stationery” page and don’t see what you want – that is the point – I will create it for you! After meeting, (or talking) initial ideas will be drawn up and made into a prototype and we’ll go from there – adjusting to please along the way…

This finished package included 22 invitations with RSVP cards, rich, coloured A4 envelopes, toning satin ribbon & button seals along with the framed original artwork. Everything hand-crafted and made with care.

It started with a… cornflower…

Soft, sweeping brush strokes form this beautiful blue and lilac cornflower and this could be the start of your wedding stationery theme…

Creating exquisite, hand-crafted save-the-dates, invitations, place names & table plans, menu cards, favour bags etc each with your specially designed motif, Busylizzie Art will ensure a perfectly coordinated feel to your wedding day.

Please visit the menu on the home page and select “Wedding invitations & Stationery” to see how it all works and to view some already created projects…

Two foyers, one artist…

If you want to create a “wow” on entry, Liz of Busylizzie Art will transform your foyer with a hand-painted panel or a whole ‘all walls’ painting…

Resources 4 Learning in Bridgwater, now have a wise-words wall, with quotation from Dr Seuss: “The more that you read, the more you will know…the more things you learn, the more places you’ll go!” which is embedded in an original Busylizzie painting…

…whilst the KS1 foyer at Combe St Nicholas Primary School near Chard, has been transformed into a woodland setting, incorporating all four trees of the school house system, woodland creatures representing the classes and their sunflower…

Contact Liz busylizzie2@sky.com for more information and prices…

Woodland scene almost complete…

Squirrels scamper in along an old beech branch, whilst s second owl swoops in and settles in the ash tree…

If you like this painting and would like to discuss further – email : busylizzie2@sky.com

Liz of Busylizzie Art at work…

And a fox crept up on the hedgehogs…

The woodland scene begun last week is beginning to be inhabited by a host of woodland ‘friends’….

All of the ‘arriving’ creatures are being painted in a range of scales to fit the spaces – so don’t be too critical of the fact the hedgehogs look as if they could seriously challenge Mr Badger…

They are ‘creative representations’ to engage the children and help them to recognise important aspects of their school life!

Classes are represented by creatures, the school house system revolves around the four trees and the sunflower reminds the children of positive behaviour, striving to be the best they can be…

Finishing touches will be done early next week – so keep an eye out for squirrels and owls!

Interested in my work? Please contact me via this website, Facebook or email: busylizzie2@sky.com

Woodland wildlife beginning to inhabit KS1 entrance foyer…

Busylizzie Art has been commissioned to breathe some sense of wonder and excitement into the KS1 foyer at Combe St Nicholas Primary School, by painting huge woodland wildlife wall-art from floor to ceiling!

After preliminary sketches, work began on the researching of suitable ‘characters’ for the scene. It needed to have Badger, Fox, Squirrel, Owl and Hedgehog to represent the classes and the four trees, oak, maple, ash and beech for the school houses. Tadpoles were also a requirement to show the pre-school groups…

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

Painting began last week, with the old oak trunk and slender ash taking their place, to be followed by the pond area, the ancient beech and finally the majestic maple tree.

These floor to ceiling trees represent the houses within the school, and the sunflower striving to stand tall, is the visual the children use as a reminder for their behaviour. Gradually the leaves are being added to the trees, as Spring unfolds and the lower boughs will soon be identifiable also by their different leaf shapes….

The woodland pond area with frog-spawn clinging to the reeds at the edge, tadpoles swimming is watched over by Mr Bagder, soon to be joined by some hedgehogs, and some more vegetation…

Excited children are speculating about what might appear overnight in their entrance foyer!

This project will be completed over the next few days and Busylizzie is available for similar scale painting in schools, nurseries, in your home too! In fact I will paint anywhere I am invited to paint!

The Amazing Taunton Live Sock Extravaganza….

Preparations are well underway for Tuesday’s information meeting where interested primary teachers will find out more about this project which will feed into this year’s Taunton Live Festival of the Performing and Creative Arts.

With ‘Socks’ as the theme, we will be exploring the skills of drawing, colour-mixing and painting as well as working in a variety of 3D media.

Children will be encouraged to look very closely, to mark-make, to match colour, to explore their favourite socks…

They will be encouraged to research, collect visual information and design socks for a whole host of purposes!!!

We will be painting socks, painting on socks, making socks for a variety of creatures….we will be stuffing socks, decorating socks, and who knows where the children’s imaginations will take them????

Socks for famous artists…

Socks for Wasily Kandinsky…
Socks for Georgia O’Keefe

Ten Taunton Primary Schools were represented at the twilight information meeting yesterday at CICCIC and the enthusiasm of the teachers was hugely encouraging.

The artwork produced in June by this Primary Schools project will be exhibited at CICCIC Taunton between July 1st and 8th.

My excitement, as Schools’ Coordinator for GoCreate / Taunton Live 2016 and organiser of this project, is mounting!!!