Wednesday 17 June 2009

A Spot of Time Travel...


I have been going through my Mum's archives recently, sorting out some images of me as a child to use as part of my exhibition. This photo, age 7, is probably the first time I posed with Giddy Goat (or perhaps Giddy's grandad). The little boys are my twin baby brothers. We were in London Zoo I believe.


I thought children visitors to the exhibition might like to see what I was like as a child, and also some drawings I did when I was little. My Mum is great - she's saved so many of the drawings I did, that I had a treasure trove to choose from. I thought you might like to see some too:




The man above was done when I was 3, the dancing cat a year later. This is a photo of me at that time, age 4:


I thought this one was rather cute - it's from my school news book, age 5. It was only my 2nd term of school (what an extraordinary thought!).


And this hilariously goofy photo is my first school photo, taken in the same year:


On my 40th birthday, this photo somehow escaped, and one of my friends printed T-shirts from it. How embarrassing.

At least some of these images are going to form part of a big introduction board at the beginning of my exhibition, giving background about me and my work. Like the fact that I actually trained as a textile designer not an illustrator at all! This is a very, very old sketchbook from those textiles days:


A courier came yesterday and took all my exhibition artwork away to Tameside, to be framed. It's all starting to feel real, and I'm getting all giddy again!

6 comments:

Buskitten said...

What a lovely post, Lynne. I see from your early work you were much more than 'averagely' talented! The dancing cat is really, really lovely! Great pics of you as a little person - aren't mum's great? They keep everything, don't they? Bless em!

Jess said...

I had the same hairstyles as you at the same ages! We are the same age now so maybe that has something to do with it? I think textile design is a perfect training ground for illustration, I like your strong sense of pattern and composition. :o)

Tomás Serrano said...

It´s a good idea show us your first drawings. As early you promised ...

Damian Harvey said...

That's a great idea Lynne - and it's always good to show the children that there were normal animals around when you were a child - not dinosaurs as they sometimes think.

Suzanne McDermott said...

Excellent idea and wonderful to see the early items and photos (especially love the peek at the textile notebook). I saw a retrospective of Ronald Searle's work in Munich in 1996. It was great - he had drawing from when he was 6 years old. I'm sure that everyone will appreciate these parts of the exhibit - not just the kiddies! We have!

Lynne the Pencil said...

Yes I must admit, I am personally extremely nosy to see background bits and bobs, and I remember being fascinated at a Picasso show by his teenage drawings.