Junior Printmaker number 1 (2012)

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This young lady 'Birta Clara’ looks a bit sleepy or tired - I can't remember what the situation actually was although I do remember that it had taken me a while to ink up her plate with her although her mother was also helping in the task.  

Birta stayed in our house during the summer along with her sister 'Erna Carry' and their mum Birna my old buddy from the time when I was doing my masters degree, in Barcelona.    We had a lovely time and the girls were very good house guests and spent hours just playing with one another in their own little world.  They would either be upstairs in their bedroom or in the back garden - the weather was lovely during the summer and some days we sat out in the sunshine and one day even filled up the old garden plastic pond with water for them to splash around in.  Jo Arksey another friend from the 'Barcelona days',  came over to lunch with us that day too.

They would often ask if it was OK for them to go into the studio to do some drawing.  Then they would work industriously for a few hours just quietly getting on with it themselves.  I would pop in now and again and talk to them about their artwork.

Birta is still at the stage where she just draws whatever she likes and creates a world filled with all sorts of creatures and locations that link to her dreams and schemes.  Her older sister, another beauty, made drawings about her friends and their clothes and parties and fun things she liked like houses and roller-skating.  It is regrettable that she was very self critical of her own artwork and was quick to rubbish it and that in part was why she didn’t end up making a print using the ready made drypoint card as she wasn’t happy with her preliminary drawing.

They enjoyed being with our pussy cats too especially Toby as he used to be there most of the time.  Those were the final days that he was still in good health.  Even after all this time - I still miss him - dear sweet fellow.