…. as Spike Milligan famously asked. That certainly sums up my state of mind just now. Our grandson has gone home after a stay of three days, and we are taking stock of the situation in a rather dazed condition. It has, however, been a good time.
As usual, he asked to do something artistic with me. I had been preparing in my mind to try collage, which we have not done before, but he had other ideas. He preferred papier mache, having recently encountered this at school. So (deep breath) …. OK. Fortunately he had a definite idea of what he wanted to do, namely to build a mountain landscape in the lid of a large box. Magically, I happened to have a suitable box, and by good fortune we had a stock of old news-print. At school that had been holding it all together with flour and water paste, but I thought, “Blow that for a lark!” (remembering the rather unsatisfactory experience of my own school days at his age.)* I reached for the PVA.
In the event I think that I can say that we made a pretty impressive attempt. The mountain was recognisable as a mountain, and it ascended through levels of woodland, heather, bracken and rock to a snowy summit. I think that when I last did this kind of thing we uses poster colour, but on this occasion it had to be acrylic. I underestimated the time it was going to take for the several stages of construction to dry properly, but with the assistance of my wife’s hair dryer we managed to finish the job in time for his return home.
I’m now completely out of PVA, one of my brushes is pretty well unusable, the diminution of my supplies of cheap acrylic paints gives me a good excuse to invest in some better quality stuff. I survived, with my reputation in tact, although I daren’t think what he will come up with on his next visit. I shall need a day to recover, certainly, and I’m hoping that this can be passed peacefully in the garden before getting back to my own work next week …. although just at the moment I have no idea what that will consist of.
*Bentley Street Junior School in Nelson, Lancashire.