Crazy Hair

I suddenly realised last night that so many of my pieces, paintjngs and models, feature hair! Very crazy hair! I counted 4 portraits painted in coffee, three coloured pencil drawings, three book illustrations and numerous models, ALL with very crazy hair!

I'm sure a psychologist would have a field day with this information!

I think my fascination first showed itself when I was writing and illustrating a book, 'Roo's Magic Colours ' dedicated to our grandson Rupert.

I wanted it to be a very interactive and inspirational book to encourage children to have fun with paint. Many of the illustrations were produced by blowing and spreading paint with a straw. (See illustration above).

A hedgehog and Poodle were also painted in the same style.

You can view this programme here:

https://youtu.be/0nISt8NWULI

During lockdown all hairdressers and barbers were closed but when they reopened there was a mad rush for haircuts and the newspapers posted people with their unruly hair and featured headlines like

For fun I cut out some of the headlines and compiled a collage as shown above. Not exactly a piece of art but a kind of 'memory'.

Then I embarked on my 'coffee' period and although my plates featured churches my portraits on canvas featured , yes, portraits of women with crazy hair. Why I chose this topic I'm not sure, except that I love drawing trees and plants and long hair when twisted, knotted and plaited does replicate the movement observed on ancient olive trees and ivy climbing up the trunks of trees.

From canvas paintjngs I embarked on coloured pencil portraits of our daughters and grandchildren then

moved on to 3D models as we were approaching Christmas.

As you can see from the images below, even when actual hair is replaced by fur or feathers I've tried to incorporate the same flow and movement.

Like many other girls and women, I like playing with my hair. This is also possible with my models! They are all very tactile.