Busylizzie Art

Surf bedroom takes shape…

Having completed the preliminary art work for this commission, I set to work on Tuesday with the background colour, sky, but encountered several obstacles on the way…. That moment I began to paint, I just knew the colour was just not right….I kept on painting a bit more, then a bit more and then stopped… I had to remix the paint and begin again….

So, day two was full-on with lots of time to make up…. creating the sea and surf, blending the shades of blue, frothing the summit of the wave with white foam…. Adding sand and the outlines of the surf-boards….

The story behind the surf boards lies with a five year old, hopelessly hooked on marvel comic characters, especially Spider-Man, but not the main theme ‘Mum’ would like for the bedroom! I dreamed up the idea of using the surf boards to encapsulate the young man’s current choice of design, then as he changes his favourite character, the surf boards can be painted over with whatever is the new first choice….

Now all that is left are the designs for the boards…… Following soon….

Beach beginnings…

First sketches and colour testers for an exciting new project…

Sand, beach, surf, surf-boards….
Testing out a range of colours for a beautiful boy’s bedroom…
Surf’s up!!!

Ethel the hen…

Adorning the walls of my newly refurbished kitchen are some of my new “poultry” friends: Ethel the hen and Clive the cockerel, along with Susan, also a hen. Painted in emulsion directly onto the soft pear green walls, these charming characters bring a little life into the room!

We decided to revive our rather ‘tired’ kitchen by renewing our doors and work surfaces, replacing dark oak with painted cream, shaker-style doors and dull green laminate with a light oak block effect. Result – a light, bright contemporary feel. The beautiful eclectic mix of green and white ceramic knobs, we found at “Knobbles and Bobbles” via eBay and the chicken knobs at a little gift shop in Somerton, Somerset.

….and so I began to dream of chickens and bunting filling various spaces around the room….and the painting began….

First Ethel and Clive appeared in full colour – orange and red but quickly were over-painted in more muted tones to suit the rest of the kitchen…..

If you would like original hand-painted designs on your walls, contact me, to arrange a free consultation…

Chickens and bunting….

Finally getting around to painting at home, in the kitchen…. I am trying to tie together the soft pear coloured walls with the ‘dandelion clocks’ curtain fabric and my love of chickens and cockerels….

Here’s how it’s going… Bunting painted this morning and chicken & cockerel added this evening….around midnight!!!

If you would like your favourite things worked into a design for ‘wall-art’ – get in touch! This took approximately 2 and a half hours to paint in total….

Tour d’Ashmoor…

Members of South Dartmoor College’s Ashmoor Community Sports Centre using the spinning studio, can now literally follow the tour!!!!

The view of the finish line in a stage of the Tour de France has been ‘customised’ and painted by me, Liz, of Busylizzie Art….

The scene shows the road and cyclists heading into the distance, whilst the tour’s iconic sunflowers grace the foreground….

Hopefully this will provide more inspiration to those exercising on the bikes than the previously blank wall!!

These are our trees…

Mark-making and colour-mixing skills were the focus for the Busylizzie Art workshop sessions held with year three children at Hamp Academy this week as part of their Art Week….

Each of the year three classes had a half day’s input in which the children practised using pencil to create different quality lines, a variety of tone and 2D representation of texture. In groups of around 7 or 8, the children then cooperated to create 6ft tall trees with bark and branch detail in both graphite and oil pastel…

Leaves were then painted onto the branches and the nearby ground, with large decorator’s brushes, after mixing a range of shades of green and yellowy oranges….

These are some of the children’s trees!

What a variety of ‘looking’ skills, mark-making and colour-mixing skills are evident with seven year olds and how we need to provide regular opportunities to develop these creative and artistic skills!

Well done Y3 at Hamp Academy…. You were a pleasure to work with, thank you!

Tick-tock croc’ completes library wall-art…

Finally, after just over 30 hours of painting, the walls of the newly located school library at Hamp Academy, Bridgwater, are complete. Chosen by the children, classic and modern fiction books are standing up or lying flopped open to reveal their characters and settings, along with a significant quotation or famous ‘line’ from their pages…. Originally written by authors as divers as Lewis Carroll and Neil Gaiman, Dr Seuss and Roald Dahl, and illustrated by ‘masters’ such as Axel Schiffler, the colourful 2015 interpretations painted by me, Liz Hutchin of Busylizzie Art, certainly bring the library alive and give the children a powerful message about books and reading….

Take a tour around the walls:

Many thanks for taking the trouble to read this article…If you like what you see, and are interested in commissioning me to paint in your school, home, child-care setting – anywhere!, please go to my contacts page or leave a comment for me on here….

Stars for Constellation Project Complete…

The schools’ stars are all complete and hung on the maze in Goodlands Gardens. The tenth anniversary of Lloyd’s death was very aptly commemorated by the Constellation Project and SAV’s work with young people extended into Primary Schools by the star painting workshops organised and delivered by Busylizzie Art, under the ‘umbrella’ of Go Create Taunton.
So pleased and proud of our contribution to the future of this hugely important cause….

Hunt the ladybirds in Hamp Academy Library…..

Lurking amongst the books and book characters now adorning the walls at Hamp Academy, are some tiny aphid-eating creatures…..

Can you spot them????

Busylizzie Art teaching trainee teachers…

Busylizzie Art provided a day of Art Skills training for trainee primary school teachers yesterday and it was hands on all day – compiling a sketchbook of notes and practical activities, adding to it their own examples from the practical activities….

These soon-to-be teachers learned about the progression of skills necessary to develop confident artists first-hand, experiencing mark-making and colour-mixing activities for Early Years through to organisation of materials and understanding how the use of colour can create space in a picture…

These are just a few of the large scale trees that were created in the early part of the day….

After a rewarding day for Busylizzie Art, sharing art skills, some of the trainees gave up their own time to paint stars for #constellationsav and Stand Against Violence and what a beautiful job they did!!!