Colour, Journals and Painting In Bed

Journals come in many forms and shapes. I have been browsing through my bookshelf and found The Diary of Frida Kahlo.

Frida had a terrible accident when she was a young woman. This meant she was often confined to her bed for many months at the time. Yep- she was in lock-down for huge periods in her life! This didn't stop her creating though, in fact, she expressed a lot of her emotions and pain as well as her happy moments through her paintings.

I am not suggesting you start painting in bed. It just shows that creativity cannot be stopped.

Some of the pages of her diary stuck together because she didn't have enough patience to let them dry properly. Other pages have big inks blobs which leak through several pages. It doesn't really matter, what is left is an amazing record of her life.

I totally love this book. Thank you Frida, for being such an inspiration.

 At school, some of you have asked me over the years "Why do we have to use watercolours? Why can't we just use normal paint?' Rudolf Steiner explained why we as teachers should use water colour, it goes something like this:

Colour has a huge impact on us. You might like it or not; the colour of the sky in the morning sets the tone for your day. The colours in your clothes determine how you feel. Everything is colour and influences how your soul can develop. Steiner wanted children to be able to experience a wide range of colours. He said it would be ideal to let children play with the different colours in light. That's a bit impractical in everyday school life, so he suggested we use a way that is closest to light: water. That's why our paints at school are transparent and watery and have a mind of their own. we are dancing with colours, not necessarily creating a perfect image of what we think.

Painting with water colours is not only harder than acrylics, but also much more expensive. I don't think many of you have them at home- me neither.  But I reckon you have somewhere in the bottom of a drawer a bunch of 'normal' paints. You can use whatever you can find. If you don't have brushes, make one out of garden materials tied together or use your fingers.

So here's your chance- paint with whatever kind of paint you can find to your heart's content! Use your journal and paint directly in it (Remember to let it dry before you close it- learn from Frida Kahlo) or if you like things tidy, paint on different paper and glue it later into your journal. I definitely don't recommend painting in your bed, but taking your paints to the garden is a great idea.Yo don't need the talent or the heath problems of Frida Kahlo to make an interesting journal, just dance with the colours. Baxter- you can splash now as much as you like, I can see your beaming smile at the thought of that.

Please remember to tidy up afterwards- you are part of a team at home, Team Home Isolation and it's important to keep friends with everyone in your team. Hey- maybe they like to join you with painting. And the clean-up.

Here's a link if you would to learn more about Frida Kahlo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wfbLR15Bh74

For the writing part of your task, write about the life of Frida Kahlo. Finish your writing with what you think you would do if you had to lay in bed for many months.