Now for something completely different...

A few weeks ago I was searching for something in the attic and came across a box which contained some tubes of paint, brushes and some sketch pads. I recognised them as the remnants of an art course I had taken during high school. Among the collection of papers I found some things I had drawn when I was thirteen years of age – I had almost forgotten the girl I was then and these sketches brought all the memories flooding back.

There was a scraperboard picture – anyone remember scraperboards? I remember us being given a blank black scraperboard along with a selection of sharp instruments in Art class in second year at high school. On the back my name and class was written in handwriting that I hardly recognised as mine – but which appeared on the fronts of all my exercise books and work from school. Clearly inspired by a picture or photograph, this is what I produced…

Seeing the picture again after many years boxed away in the attic seemed to create a resonance in me and I just felt it had to be framed and put up on a wall sometime.

During high school we lived in Burslem in Stoke-on-Trent, just down the road from the Royal Doulton factory. It was probably at the height of the fashion for collecting the delicate and detailed lady figurines and somehow I must have got my hands on a catalogue of their designs. I seem to remember having a fancy for clothes design – it was in the era of the Jeff Banks Clothes Show – and in the box of memories I unearthed my – would you say, impressionistic? – sketches of some of the figurines. You may recognise some of them….

So this was my reminiscence therapy – it gave me an insight into who I was those years ago and brought with it some mixed feelings. Maybe poignant feelings are a better way to describe them. So every time I look at the picture on the wall I will remember the happiness I felt when I had finished the scraperboard and the teacher said it was good.

Have a lovely weekend!