SOMETHING AMUSING FOR THIS SUNDAY MORNING… Part 1

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This image shows the 6th grade from Westtown school ….My son Jarrod Burnett reed is part of the group.

Occasionally I would volunteer to chaperone my son’s class when they went on field trips..

In this instance they were spending a long weekend in Washington DC staying at the Hotel Harrington.…..more about that in my next post………..

In Part One the class is spending a few days in a beautiful national park in Pennsylvania. I was in charge of a group of girls teaching them all about orienteering.

Guess what I lost the group!…..I am afraid my sense of direction etc. has never been that good:)

More about The Hotel Harrington in my next post. – which is very funny,

I thought with all the madness and doom and gloom in the world that we needed something to smile about:)

Enjoy your weekend…….

Another world.

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At 80 plus – I have reached that stage where the end of my journey is close. I don’t say that from sadness – just simply a fact of life. I am so grateful to have lived a life filled with all the normal ups, downs and everything in between plus the personal gift of constant curiosity, appreciation and gratitude for the world surrounding me. From my earliest childhood I have been in awe of it all.

I had wonderful parents – and two beautiful children and for the most part good health. For me the biggest gift has been the understanding from such an early age that I wanted to spend my life immersed into the creative process. – Putting marks on paper or any other available surface became my way of achieving this. Not for acknowledgement and certainly not for making money – but simply to immerse myself into the beauty of the world around me. To this day it’s the only thing that makes sense to me …..

Along with making pictures I have loved teaching...another area of my life which I did somewhat differently than most. From my thirties on I have given workshops wherever I could. which gave me freedom to teach the way I wanted to teach,…which naturally morphed into travel and meeting people from around the world…

As long as I ‘followed my bliss’ to coin Joseph Campbell’s words – life evolved in the most interesting ways…. – reminding me constantly that ‘None of us is every creative enough to know how life will actually work out….. This theory only falls apart for me when I try to force things..…! I need to stay in a gentle flow…….

My Mother with me and my uncle Colin in Richmond Park…not far from where I live now….

Having been born in London with my (silver egg cup:).….I grew up in Kent when the county was still very much The Garden of England. It was a much simpler time….one I am grateful to have experienced during my formative years. It served as an excellent foundation block for this young aspiring artist. It was at The Camp School in Kent that I met Mrs Whitefield, a teacher who inspired me in many ways…….and then later on at Rochester Art School…Mr.Spike..a wonderful artist and teacher.

Mrs. Whitefield encouraged us to enjoy and explore the natural world….something which stays with me to this day and Mr. Spike encouraged me to be ME…..which way back then was quite unusual.

It was when I was at The Camp School that my ‘eye issues’ were discovered….i.e. acute astigmatism….. I can tell some amusing stories about this…maybe later.

It was also during my time at The Camp School that I failed my Eleven Plus examination.... At the time this was painful, but I have been able to accept and grow into this with humour:). It saddens me to think of those who felt forever stigmatised because of this….!

Having failed the eleven plus (you have to be a Brit to understand the significance of this) I was sent to Mrs. Bennetts a small strict English girls school which again was OK. Most importantly this lead me to Rochester Art School..- (Now pat of the University of the Creative Arts)..…which in turn lead me to so much more…..

Entrance to East Gate Rochester, where I first attended art school in the early sixties…..

More to come in next post…..