Busylizzie Art

Peter Pan joins Alice, The Witches, Harry Potter & Co in the Library at Hamp Academy…

Day three of painting in the newly refurbished library at Hamp Academy, Bridgwater, has seen the appearance of more characters from the books above the shelves along with the children’s favourite quotes….

Peter Pan and a friendly looking dinosaur/dragon have joined the likes of Alice, The Gruffalo, and the Witches, emerging from the ‘books’ around the room…

Fox and snake have escaped from mouse and the gruffalo….

……and Alice noses in on the tea party….

There is room for one more book to be illustrated and ‘exploded’- I wonder what the children will choose?

If you like the look of my artwork, and have a project you would like to discuss – contact me to arrange a meeting!

Stars for Stand Against Violence Constellation Project…

Monday sees the start of two weeks of workshops in Taunton Primary schools facilitated by Liz of Busylizzie Art, under the umbrella of Go Create Taunton…

Children of Y5 &6 will be introduced to the Taunton based charity, Stand Against Violence (SAV) which was set up almost 10 years ago after the tragic death of then 18 year old Lloyd Fouracre. Lloyd was beaten to death in an act of senseless violence on his way home from a friend’s 18th birthday party in 2005. SAV was set up by Adam, Lloyd’s older brother, in the hopes of educating young people and preventing further needless deaths.

Ten years on, the work of SAV goes from strength to strength… The ‘Constellation’ project will culminate on September 25th with a massive maze installation on Castle Green, displaying 3,000 stars hand-painted by the children and people of Taunton and a stunning hand-painted mural on Tangier Way.

Workshops have been held over the summer at various locations in and around Taunton, but Monday sees the start of local Primary schools’ involvement as Liz, of Busylizzie Art , visits to create yet more stars over the next two weeks….

The boxes are packed and ready to go….

Roll on Monday – we have stars to be paint!!!

Day Two in the Library at Hamp Academy….

Despite the fact that the traffic through North Petherton slowed down my start by about 40 minutes, as soon as I had set up my table, I was able to continue with the ‘Alice’ scene….

Cupcakes and a fully iced cake that would warrant a place on “The Great British Bake-off” were soon added, along with the inevitable hearts!

Alice’s friend the caterpillar set off to find his mushroom / toadstool but only discovered some daisies, like the ones the white rabbit had collected and placed in the tea pot…..”You’re entirely bonkers!” she declared

Next was the turn of Roald Dahl’s Witches to make an appearance…..

….and then the Gruffalo, Owl and mouse gradually began to emerge from the woodland scene… Before mouse’s very eyes….

After the merest hint of a lunch break, ‘The Prisoner of Azkaban’ opened its pages and Harry Potter rose up on the back of an enormous bird/flying horse….

There are still spaces on the walls above the bookshelves in the new library, but plans for Peter Pan and a popular new novel by Neil Gaiman – ‘Fortunately, the milk…’, will be added as soon as I can return…..

(NB Full credit to original authors and illustrators will be added to the finished painting)

What a precious feeling to be so excited in the morning to go to ‘work’…. It feels such a treat to do what I love to do so much…..and find that others actually like what I produce is such a bonus!!!!!

Busylizzie Art – if you would like some large-scale wall art, use the contacts page to message me please…..

Hamp Academy Library – update day 1

An early start enabled me to spend almost 11 hours today on day 1 of the library project…

A shelf and a variety of books were painted first,

followed by several open books and then began the fun! Adding the characters and then the favourite quotes from the children….

First book was Alice in Wonderland – deviated a little from the original sketch and the page is awaiting the cakes to be painted tomorrow along with the hearts and flowers…

Tomorrow will be the turn of The Gruffalo, The Witches, amongst others!

Look out tomorrow for an update!

Books come alive at Hamp Academy’s newly located library…

Just putting final sketches together, gathering materials – checking pots of colour and making sure brushes are dry and ready to go for Tuesday!

Busylizzie Art has been commissioned to paint children’s favourite book characters and quotes in the newly located library at Hamp Academy, Bridgwater…

Very proud and pleased to be asked and excited at the prospect!!!

Look out for updates!

‘Rustic chic’ – my watercolour paintings hand-made into wedding stationery….

Trying out some more ‘rustic chic’ combinations of ribbon and card with the existing pink rose paintings for a potential customer….

50 Invites, details printed on insert, 13 x 13cm card with envelopes plus organza ribbon, all hand-made using an existing painting, all for £200. (Over 50 charged pro-Rata)

Place name cards with either printed or hand-calligraphed names at only a small extra cost to cover materials….

Save the date cards, invitations, place cards, menu cards can all be coordinated with your theme… Card colour, font, ribbons, mounts etc are all your choice…

Favour bags ( brown or white) menu cards printed over same themed background, all at very reasonable rates but hand-made to perfection, exactly as you would like them…

A more sophisticated cream theme using the same rose paintings…. With hand torn mounts an extra £20 per 50 (£220) or with narrow satin ribbon & garden string also (£220 for 50 invitations)

Remember, your choice of flowers ( or anything else you fancy!!) can be painted expecially for you and therefore your stationery will be totally original – this for just an extra £75 – £100 depending on detail of painting….

Call 07730605193 or email busylizzie2@sky.com now, to arrange a free consultation meeting!

Bringing the outside, natural environment inside to create an interactive wall painting…

From the moment I began planning the large scale wall-art for Taunton-based Shakees Play Cafe, I knew that a needed to incorporate the natural world, in order to captivate young minds and encourage interaction between child and adult.

The Shakees Rainbow Bear featured first in the plan…

.:..and then he was taken over by the outside environment…

The beginnings of the idea were based on flowers in number combinations of 1,2,3

Below shows detail of daisy for ‘2’

Next appeared 3 delightful little hedgehogs, snuffling around in the grass or inquisitively looking around…

Followed by 2 bees and a bounding bunny…
Ladybirds to the total of 4 plus caterpillars crawling up stems and along leaves brought the painting to life…

The finished wall art has the potential to interest and engage little people as they count and name the friendly creatures….

If you would like a specially designed ‘Wall Painting’ for a child’s bedroom, childcare setting or anywhere, please contact me, Liz, via the contact page or email direct busylizzie2@sky.com.

Prices start at £100 for half day (4hours) painting and include initial consultation meeting and design board. The finished painting featured in this article took approximately 15 hours painting time but was done free of charge as part of Taunton Live 2015….

Where land meets sea…

Busylizzie Art is both pleased and proud to have been commissioned to create a new look for the corridors at Leigham Primary School, Plymouth during August 2015.

Even before completion, painting rolling hills and rippling waves along corridor walls has begun to create some cohesion in this large Plymouth primary school…

Plans were created, colour combinations experimented with and with children safely out of the equation on holiday, it was full-steam ahead on Monday August 3rd…

A sense of ‘pulling everything together’ definitely began to emerge as the KS1 corridors were painted with a simple ‘hill’ design in three shades of green…

…and the KS2 corridors now have ripples and waves…

Inspirational quotations from philosophers, musicians, psychologists, educationalists etc have now been added…

A few final touches and it will be ready to greet those ‘curious, confident learners’ as they start a new school year…

Funky Festival Flowers…

Last weekend saw the culmination of months and months of meetings, discussions, planning, begging, making, and a tireless determination to pull off the first week-long festival celebrating the creative and performing Arts, TAUNTON LIVE 2015!

What a triumph it was and a pleasure (even if exhausting) to be part of this very first event of its kind.

These flowers were dreamed up whilst staring at my recycling, poking out of the top of its box under the kitchen work surface…. A certain fizzy drinks bottle conjured up the image of a beautiful tulip…

A quick trim with sharp scissors and a coat of acrylic paint….

The children of Taunton produced over 170 of these flowers to create a ‘garden’ on Castle Green…

These are now in ‘storage’ and will be re-planted on September 25th in memory of Lloyd Fouracre’s life, cut short tragically, ten years ago.

The stars we have been creating are all part of this memory too….

Three thousand stars have been made to be painted by the people of Taunton and will form part of a massive installation on Castle Green to mark the tenth anniversary of Lloyd’s death…. Free star painting workshops are being offered for local schools and children’s groups…. Contact me via my website for more details!

Super Stars at Wellsprings

Children attending the summer holiday camp at a Wellsprings Leisure Centre this Thursday learned all about Stand Against Violence’s Constellation Campaign and their ‘Wish upon a Star’ project…..

These are the stunning stars created by the 5-10 year olds in acrylic paint on plywood star shapes….

Busylizzie Art, working for Go Create Taunton, facilitated these sessions, providing the background to the project, inspiration and materials to create some amazing stars….