"Trickster's Hat" Lesson 3

This is lesson 3 from Nick Bantock's book "The Trickster's Hat." It is supposed to be a landscape. I decided mine ended up looking more like detritus washed up on a beach. Because of that I cheated a bit. None of the stamps could be used for what was actually pictured = a tree couldn't be used as a tree. But I couldn't resist using the leaning capitol dome, buried to its pillars with trash, to finish my lesson.

An Idea And Its Source

For years I have loved and collected books by the artist and writer Nick Bantock, best known for his Griffin and Sabine series, but he has done other illustrated books as well. Two of my favorites are The Venetian's Wife, and The Forgetting Room. The other day I discovered his FB page, which I dived into like Alice down the rabbit hole, scrolling through older and older posts of artwork, creativity advice, limericks, and artists tips on process and tools. But what he also does on this FB site, along with posting his artwork, is to tell short stories to go with some of the pieces. Intriguing little snippets that pique your interest and make you look at the art a bit closer.

I loved the concept and thought it would be a great way to give myself writing prompts, while also encouraging me to do more artwork — something I've been trying to get back into for months. Granted, I'm no Nick Bantock, but I thought it would be fun to play with his idea, so, periodically I will post a piece of my own work and make up a very short little story to go with it. I hope to have my first piece up by next week.

It might make a nice change from the stitching, beading, altered clothing, jewelry and horse stuff I usually post. Which brings up another thing I am changing...again. I'm going to reboot my horse blog. I've been posting a lot of horse stuff on FB, and a little of it here, which not everyone is interested in. With a new horse at our barn and lots of equine activities planned for this summer, it seems like a good idea go back to Equine Madness for all of that. If you're interested, there is a link under my header.

Hope you'll stay tuned...