Keep your head in the clouds

Keep your head in the clouds and your feet on the ground.

I’ve not drawn or painted faces for a long time (it shows!), but lately I’ve been obsessed with poses. Especially the children’s poses. I have been jotting them down in my journal as I see them, in the hope of developing them later in the sketching childhood books and beyond.

Yesterday, Aoife was lying on the floor, resting her head in her hands and kicking her legs behind her. The golden evening light flooded over her. The fitted carpet underneath her transformed too,  from green and yucky to light and fluffy. As I was sketching her, I realised she reminded me of the angel/ cherub die-cut paper scraps I had as a child. They pretty much always rested their elbows on a cloud.

Did you have paper scraps too?

I loved them. I had a whole box full of them that had been handed down to me from my mother and my sisters. Lovely vintage ones, as well as new ones I got from the dentist after each visit (of course, now they’d be considered vintage too!). I pasted the duplicates and new ones in albums, and kept the rest in the box for trades with friends and neighbours.

With that image still fresh in my mind, I made this mixed media piece today on watercolour paper.

I’m no angel, but I like how this representation of  me trying to figure out how to balance my life  plays on that image.

Because this is how I see myself. I know I am a dreamer. I often have my head in the clouds coming up with new ideas, but I also have a practical side. Mostly, they coexist harmoniously. Sometimes, like lately, they’re both fighting for my attention.

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“Keep your head in the clouds” is a mixed media piece on watercolour paper, using water soluble crayons, pen, ink, gesso, and oil pastel.