It's the end of the year as we know it!

2013 went by like a whirling dervish in my household! The New Zealander's have a turn of phrase for the kind of busyness I am talking about. They would say;  'busy as'. 

I was back in the classroom this year after some time away and was on a steep learning curve. Some of which involved the ins and outs of operating a Smartboard and realising it is just a tool, nothing really changes quickly in education and good teaching practice remains exactly that ...good teaching practice with or without the smart board. However, at 8.35am and with little time and a lack of recently developed resources I did turn to the Smartboard as a great opportunity to load up something controversial, interesting or inspiring...and I managed all 3 of these things at least once over the year...Anyway I felt really rusty back in the classroom and hope the New Year can bring about a more consistent sense of direction for me and the students - as it was, it all ended well enough and I can highly recommend Prezi as great educational software - still learning how to drive it but loved what it did to my 'boring as' poetry lessons!

Meanwhile my adult classes at the 'Victoria Park Centre for the Arts - spare wall print makers group" have been ticking along really successfully. I held four 6 week printmaking courses over the year, in lino - and more recently - mono printing techniques. We had a lot of fun with a great mix of people who turned up and put their creativity on the line! 

Here are a few examples of my recent printmaking efforts.   

This is one of my recent hand coloured lino prints.
'Bush Banksia's'  

I've had fun colouring the black and white print and also using it in a cropped down form for a few hand printed cards as the prints show below:  

Lino print overlayed onto a multi coloured mono print on paper. 

And this card again used the same lino plate of the bush banksia's  - a smaller detail section only and over printed it onto a mono print paper.

So as you can see - some great fun effects have happened by experimenting with mixed media, lino plate print methods and just a touch of some digital photography cropping and 'whizz bangery'.
  





All the best for 2014...