Take a trip on Art Air: Where will you go?
Feb 10, 2021
A couple of weeks ago, in drawing class, we were drawing tropical scenes. In an instant, I was transported back to a holiday which I can remember as clearly today as the day I went. It was like I had travelled there and art was my mode of transport.
When I was 8, my parents took my sister and I on our first holiday abroad. Not on a day trip to France, but half way across the world to stay with my Uncle John for the whole summer holiday, in Singapore!
While we were there, my intrepid Uncle John, booked us a trip to a remote island called Tioman in Malaysia. We stayed for a week in a tin shack on a beach! There was no running water, ants as big as your hands and monkeys swinging through the trees! We walked a few minutes down a dirt path to a little cafe and had best egg fried rice I've ever eaten and delicious freshly baked banana bread. It was sooooooo good!
Seriously, this was no trip to Calais….it was incredible, mind blowing, life changing….my mum did tell me much later that she was freaking out a bit. She didn’t really think though the implications of taking two young children to a remote island as their first foreign experience 😉
Whist painting this picture my memories came flooding back. I was there, back on Tioman with my family. I found myself not only thinking about the place…but the people. My Uncle and Mum have both passed away and it kindled such happy memories of a very idylic, special time and an incredible place. I even found a watercolour painting that my Mum did on the very same beach….30 years ago.
That’s the power of art……it can take us anywhere and anytime. So although we're really restricted and we can't go anywhere at the moment, drawing and painting provides us with a vehicle to travel, to revisit, to discover, to remember.
This holiday provides me with one of the most crystal clear memories. It was just so alien and exotic, beautiful and strange. The smells, the sights and sounds… it just takes you straight back.
So we can't travel, see our loved ones…..For now, let's just let our imagination the travelling. So, take a trip with ‘Art Air’. We can go anywhere you want. And enjoy it, and and let me know where you go, because I'd love to hear and see about your travels.
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