A book in the making

How am I spending this winter?

Book making!

I am illustrating my first book for children, which is a trail transformed in a story about the Isle of Wight Biosphere, commissioned by the National Literary Trust and The Common Space.

It is an exciting experience: I am learning a lot, drawing a lot, and understanding my process, and what might need some adjustments

 (i.e. my neck is saying to me that I can't be 10 hours in the studio per day!)

The part that I enjoy the most so far, is the research, sketches and colour tests. 

I also found out a way to trick my brain when is time for final art: I just say to myself that's a colour test! and often I get into the flow more easily. The only thing is, it doesn't work for bigger spreads, as every inch of space needs to be calculated well...So, when it comes a big spread, I print my sketch and trace it on paper, and then paint it...but it feels less spontaneous.. So I will keep looking for solutions!

The thing I loved the least, so far is the mental pressure of final art!

I am so happy to have been trusted for this project, and I feel lucky to go to work in my studio and being immersed in the wonderful stories of nature. On the other hand, I know I worked incredibly hard for this, for many years, in every inch of free time I had from my day job.

I recently chose to prioritize my time more, aware of the economic downside of this choice. My life got simpler, time stretched, my mind had less thoughts, and as a consequence of this slowing down, I think my mental health is... thankful! 

One of the reasons for choosing this is that this year I am stepping out of my comfort zone a lot, and pushing my introvert boundaries in order to do my work as an artist and educator in the community; in the last 2 months I have been working with children and adults in more than 11 new organizations... so I allow myself a lot of resting time in between each event.

At the moment, I am also leading a home education group once a week at Ventnor Botanic Gardens. In future, I would love to work with smaller children too , as I found a special connection with 3 to 5 years old children...we seem to share the same sense of wonder!

At the beginning of the year, I set myself the goal to develop more human characters in my artworks, and I made a good start on it, by going each week to draw in my local Primary school and train my hand and brain to draw moving children, an almost impossible but fun challenge!

In my next post, I would like to talk about my experience of the latest Folktale Week, a week art challenge about folktales for which I created a story all inspired by Nature, meanwhile

just reminding you that my little online woodland shop is open and stocked for Christmas !

Brightest wishes!

Lucia

Folktale Week 2022

 Folktale Week is an online event which takes place on Instagram every year towards the end of november. It is a week of seven art prompts based on storytelling, one for each day, and many artists love it because is connected (as the title says) to the magic of folk and fairy tales. 

Prompt 1: FOOL

Following each prompt, creators are invited to create an image, with any media: paint, drawing, photography, collage, poetry, 3D art...

For the last two years, because  it is such an exciting but overwhelming task to create a final piece every day, the hosts released the prompts some weeks in advance, to give artists the time to create at a more doable pace.

Prompt 2: TREE

A challenge is always...challenging (excuse the pan!) as it pushes us out of our comfort zone, for one reason or another: the ability to tell a story with images, consistency of style and characters, time constraints. But precisely for this, it is always a fantastic opportunity for growth, especially as there is a strong and very kind sense of community and mutual support going on every year. This year, I joined Sarah Dyer, a wonderful artists and teacher who gave so many advices and inspiration for this event.

Also, because of its popularity, many people follow it and this gives creators more visibility. Only in 2022, more than fifteen thousand posts were tagged.

Prompt 3 and 4 combined: STAR + REBEL

I have been taking part last time in 2020, and still that work is featured in some of my best selling greeting cards . This year, I wanted to do it because I needed some mental space for personal work in between the book I am illustrating. Also, I decided I was finally going to try and put on paper my long lasting love for mushrooms, and crate a story based on their wondrous world about which I was reading in the best seller Entangled Life by Merlin Sheldrake.

Prompt 5: COSTUME

For a series of coincidences, I happened to be alone at home, with my mushroom book and my ideas for this story... and I jumped in with my whole mind and heart. I researched fact, looked at photos, discovered so many amazing things, and my inspiration grew between imagination and reality. If anything, the drawing that came out of this will always remind me of this magical time.

Prompt 6: POTION

What came out, is a curious little story about two friends, a Leaf cutter ants (Effin) and a fluorescent snail (Baob) who want to solve the mistery of sleepless nights in the woods. They happen to discover it underground: it is a Star Mushroom , which happened to have fallen from the skies because... people forgot how to dream. But now, she loves it down there...it is full of life! Effin and Baob persuade her to come back to the surface with them, and by catching the dance of the spores...the star mushroom flies back to the skies. Since that day, of course, dreams are back in the woods!

The star mushroom in the woods

This story gave me opportunity to include many interesting facts about leaf cutter ants, that farm mushrooms, and Quantula Striata, an elusive snail that emits fluorescent lights (researchers have different ideas of the reasons for it, but probably is for communication) but also the magnificent sculptures of Dillon Weston and the spores dance, of course...a real nature show if you happen to see it!

Prompt 7: VICTORY

I took my drawing into school and children were very intrigued by all these interesting things... and by these two characters also. Which gave me the confidence to finish the story, and imagining the life of these two friends after it. I hope to develop it further, as I feel their adventures could easily carry on!

Foraging with the BBC

 

Good news!

My love for nature and foraging brought me on TV!

 This evening (Friday 14th October 2022)

 at 7 pm Uk 

on the BBC ONE SHOW

there is a short film about foraging on the 

Isle of Wight

where I will appear too...

hope you will enjoy, it will be visible for at least a week 

on the programme website!

Art and Mindfulness in Nature

 

A lovely opportunity to connect with nature

with mindfulness techniques, forest bathing,

nature journaling and listening to nature

to express our true inner colours.

I will bring along my sketchbook to share

the silent dialogue I have with nature

on paper,

which is made of discoveries and colours.

Come along, 

all info 

here

A colourful Autumn begins!

I always felt September 

was a month of new beginnings.

In Italy, this month is filled with new scents and a

welcome freshness in the air.

In the little Island where I live, mostly filled with the seasonal rains

that come from the Atlantic. But in both cases, 

it has always felt a month of beginnings...

I already started a new season with children 5 to 10 years old

at Ventnor Botanic Gardens with Grow & Learn .

Every Thursday we spend a day in this magical place doing fun things, all arty and nature related.

On Sunday 2 October I will lead a very rare workshop for adults,

where I will share for the first time my sketchbook secrets in a

quirky woodland together with Forever Wild at Heart

which will bring her mindfulness and forest bathing techniques, for an afternoon 

of pure nature connection! 

You can book here , for more info I leave my email at the end of this post.

I also joined Independent Arts , a local charity that offers creative workshop to the community,

and had already 2 fantastic workshop with children.

But the thing that makes me most happy is that a big dream a come true!

I am officially working on my first book, funded by the National Literary Trust 

and published in March 2023.

 It is a story trail based in Sandown Bay, and it will be officially presented ( by me!) 

at the local festival Hullabaloo on Saturday 15th October.

I will lead a walk (11 to 12.30, starting from Browns Golf course, info here ), 

give a talk (3.30 pm) about the book process and... read you the story.

I will also be back at Quay Arts with children workshops,

starting on Sunday 23 October.

Many of you have been asking about  a 2023 calendar and, unfortunately, 

I haven't released one this year.

I was so busy with University, and also last year

I had a lot of problems with postage delays and unespected

taxes for European customers,

so I decided to make...

a colouring book instead!

I am still working on it, and 

I will post any updates on that hopefully soon!

Well, it was quite a lot of news, so I hope you enjoyed reading and

for any information regarding events/book/other

please reach our here

hello(dot)luciapara(at)gmail.com

Thank you!

Bright summer days

 

Hello friends,

a little update about summer in this little corner of the world...

As I am writing this, I just graduated as an Early Years Teacher

with a Level 6 degree in the Uk.

The best part of this journey was going tinto schools, meeting children from 0 to 7 years old,

and experience what life is for them. 

I learnt so much that I think I don't mistake by saying

that they were my main teachers!

Alongside that, the hardest part was to follow the university online system, 

 it was a true nightmare!

But I loved all the articles and books I could read.

I went to University by ferry and it was so special, and I always came back with a pile of books! 

I think learning is my favourite part of life, and this is what got me through the most difficult times.

I still vividly remember the first day, when I couldn't even understand what the teachers was talking about as they used so many acronyms and being a foreigner, it was like another language to learn!

But I didn't give up, after a day in tears, I buckled my shoes again and I got

 super high grades at the end.

To celebrate this big achievement, I went camping in Cornwall with a friend, and it was really a special time. 

We discovered the most amazing, friendly and laid back campsite, with sea view, botanical plants, cute private spaces for tents and music in the evening. 

Children were running free and barefoot and so did the ducks that carefully cleaned the pitches after visitors !

I also took part in the Rhythm Tree Festival

with a workshop for children all about trees,

sharing Emma Carlisle new book

and making a little book with them.It was a real highlight, they had so much fun!

It was a nice dry summer and this was great for outdoor markets...

In took part at two dates of the Art in The Garden market in Ryde, and it was nice 

to meet new and old faces, and there was a great atmosphere and  sense of community,

that I truly missed during the pandemic. For this events,

I created a special nature inspire stall who matched perfectly my art!

And lastly, I updated my online shop with all the lovely work 

created during the year and that I hadn't had time to print cause of studying.

I was afraid University would take away art the, but I jumped in my studio every week end

and that was so good. 

The art that came out of this year feels new, and it's heading in 

the direction I feel mostly me. 

Keep going little artists(that's what I say to my students, and I said it to me also!)

For now, I leave you with some inspiration I Found in these summer days

Current readings:

Stolen Focus , The continuum concept , Untangled life

Favourite picnic recipe :

Apple oat bars

Favourite current exhibition:

Beatrix Potter at the V&A

Inspiring artists:

Catherine Hide

Ema Malyauka

Rea (Solaveyi)

If you work with children, check out Cassie Stephens,

she's full of zest and inspiration !

 

 

A new Adventure...

 Long time has passed since my last post.

 I have been very busy and "new" is the word  

that could resume at best my last 6 months.

The Uk government has awarded 

the innovation and educational value of my workshops/videos for children 

with a Level 6 degree, which I am about to finish, 

to qualify "officially" as an Early Years Teacher.

I was an educator in Italy, 

before moving to England, and as

I come from the Reggio Emilia approach environment (as I talk about here), 

 I go all in with Arts and Drama (as you will be able to notice from my videos)

Also, I have been part of a pilot project, 

an officially approved childhood enrichment service

 mainly for home educated children, on the Island where I live.

The thing I love the most there is that I can be what I truly am,

mixing art with storytelling and cooking and drama, 

and learning from the children so much!

I can't even start on the wonderful crazy things we have done together!

I have been doing also public workshops, 

and this was a fantastic way to connect more with my local community.

Life is not easy, studies are uphill, but

I am so happy to have accepted to step into the unknown.

It took me a while to be able to write about this, as it is a lot and it happened

 in little steps.

And as a big cherry on the cake, 

my art is flourishing even with the little time I currently have for it.

I already plan to be a teacher only part time, 

as my dream to illustrate stories is on  top of the list, 

as always have been in the last million years 😊

I have been having some important wins in the artistic world, 

grew confidence in my practice

and I feel so ready to tackle human characters, 

after it felt too intimidating for years.

 I come from fine art and the last thing I wanted is to draw a realistic figure, 

so I just avoided it (great tactic!).

But switching to animals helped,

 while I learnt other important things about building images.

I have finally updated my Etsy shop

with new cards and more will come!

For now, 

I leave you with some cloud biscuits

they come from a workshop I did recently with children,

 and I loved it so much 

now I can't even watch a cloud without... thinking of eating it !!