Artist My Story

This story belongs to Meredith and her mum Julie.

It's a tiny tale about Julie and the things she used to do.

-You know how you can paint and draw anywhere?

-Yeah.

Well, you can also show...

Now it's time for her to share her memories

and take Meredith on a journey of discovery.

Mum Julie is an artist.

That means she makes works of art, like paintings, drawings

and sculptures.

Mum Julie is helping Meredith make a print.

Meredith can makes lots of copies of the same picture this way.

What fun!

Meredith is using a roller covered in bright orange paint,

which she uses to colour the template.

Then, Meredith takes a piece of paper,

places it on top of the template and rubs it very, very, very hard.

The last thing Meredith needs to do is carefully peel off

the piece of paper to show her print.

Meredith's print makes a lovely picture.

Wow!

Mum Julie knows lots of different ways to make art.

Let's find out what else Julie can make.

What are these boxes for?

These boxes, Meredith, are part of a sculpture I made

and they were inset into the ground. Do you know what a sculpture is?

Yes.

A sculpture is...

You can touch and you can walk round it, but a drawing is...

-You just draw it and you just look at it. You can't feel it.

-Yes.

-Shall I show you what I mean by the pictures?

-Yes.

Julie's sculpture was made up of big yellow boxes,

which were dug into the ground.

There are 49 of these boxes in this sculpture. That's a lot of boxes!

What time of day do you think that was taken?

-The morning?

-In the morning, yes.

So isn't it amazing from a very simple thing, like a box or a block,

you can make a work of art like this, something really quite beautiful?

Look at these other sculptures.

This is a big angel made out of metal.

And this looks like a sculpture made out of stone.

But hang on a minute, you can bounce on it!

What fun!

What about this giant horse?

Sculptures can be made out of lots of different things

and come in all shapes and sizes.

I remember really enjoying drawing and painting when I was little,

but I think it wasn't until a little later when I was in my early teens

that I began to really love drawing and taking it very seriously.

And I also loved making things with my hands.

I especially enjoy drawing landscapes like sea cliffs

and being on the beach and hills and mountains.

When Julie left school, she decided she wanted to be an artist.

She went to an art school in Oxford, which is a very busy town.

There she got better and better at art.

When she left art school, Julie decided to go on an adventure

to see where and what she could paint.

She travelled to a tiny island in the Scottish sea called Mingulay.

And this is Mingulay. Families used to live on the island.

Look at this very old film.

They lived off the land by growing their own crops,

keeping their own animals and fishing from the sea.

But now everyone is gone and only the old houses remain.

And here's Julie from a while back on the island

deciding what to paint. And do you know what?

She still goes back every summer.

This island has many different landscapes for her to paint.

There are beautiful sandy beaches on one side of the island

and rugged, craggy cliffs on the other.

And, of course, the deep, blue sea.

Mum Julie also teaches art in this primary school

where the children speak Gaelic,

a language still spoken in parts of Scotland.

This school is also Meredith's school.

THEY SPEAK IN GAELIC

Mum Julie couldn't speak Gaelic

so she decided to learn so she could join in the fun.

Julie is taking Meredith and her classmates

outside for an art lesson.

She talks to the children in Gaelic all the time.

It's very different from English.

THEY SPEAK IN GAELIC

I wonder what they're saying?

Ah! Meredith's classmate, Eva,

is telling Julie about how she likes to draw waves.

Then mum Julie took Meredith into the place where she works.

It's called an artist's studio.

Julie has lots of room in the studio

so she can make big sculptures and big paintings.

It's also the place where she keeps all her paints,

paintbrushes and tools - everything she needs to make art.

Mum Julie is going to teach Meredith how to make paint.

First of all you need a pigment to make the paint colour.

They are using this deep red pigment to make a deep red colour.

But look at these jars - inside there are other pigments,

bright blues and greens to make blue and green paint.

Pigments make all sorts of colours.

First of all, with this particular pigment, it's quite lumpy.

Can you put some in their in the pestle, here? That's great.

-Do you see it's quite hard, isn't it?

-Yeah, it's quite stony.

The first thing Meredith has to do

is break the pigment into smaller pieces.

-It's got into all smaller bits now.

-Exactly.

-It's getting slowly smaller, so shall we try sieving it?

-Yeah!

She then separates the big lumps from the small lumps.

Only the smallest bits of pigment

will go through the sieve into the big tub.

OK, and then why don't I lift it up and you tap it?

Do you see what's happening?

Yeah, it's turned into powder. It's like chocolate sprinkles!

It is a bit like sprinkles.

Look - Meredith has made the pigment into a powder.

If you pour a pile on to there...

That's it.

Then they pour out the lovely pigment powder

on to a big flat stone, add some water...

We start mixing it in.

-Why don't you try mixing it in?

-..and mix it together to make a paste.

-It's very creamy, isn't it?

-Wow! It's like cream.

Then they take a special artist's tool called a muller.

-Have you ever done this before?

-No. It's my first time. It's really fun.

Which they use to make the paste even smoother.

Really press down hard. Brilliant.

-Would you like to try and paint with it, now that it's ready?

-Yeah.

Do you want to try using the brush?

You wet the brush quite well, I think.

Why don't you try a little bit of the paint?

Try painting it on.

Wow. It's a really strong colour. It's really nice to paint.

What colour does it remind you of?

Meredith and mum Julie made paint using pigment

like people used to do a long time ago.

Look at these cave paintings.

These are some of the oldest paintings in the world

and they were made using pigment.

We can still see paintings that are very old even today

and lots of people still come to see them.

The best place to see paintings is in an art gallery. Look at this one.

It's very busy. Lots of families go to art galleries,

not just to view all sorts of art -

it's a great place to meet up and spend the day having fun

and finding out about lots of different things.

What a fantastic time!

For all the family.

Meredith and mum Julie are going to make their very own painting.

They found a beautiful spot to paint from.

This was one of Julie's favourite things to do when she was little.

Meredith and mum Julie have found a lovely pebble beach.

The blue sea is in front of them and the hills are far away.

There are lots of things for Meredith to paint.

First of all, Meredith has to draw the hills and the sea with a pencil.

Meredith starts by drawing the hills.

The hills are different shapes and sizes.

There are lovely, green, round ones and big, sharp, pointy ones.

That's good.

And then do you remember the sharp mountains at the back?

Yeah.

They're just hiding behind the round ones, aren't they?

Meredith has finished drawing the hills and the sea.

Now she's ready to start adding lots of different colours.

Meredith is using lots of lovely bright colours.

She's using blue for the sea...

I think you're ready to do the mountains and the roundy hills.

..and greens and yellows and browns for the hills.

Really try and keep the sharpness of the contour

that you drew of those mountains. They are so sharp, aren't they?

-What colour are the clouds?

-White.

-Well, not just white.

-Grey.

-And they're grey.

To finish Meredith's picture, she's painting the sky.

That's brilliant. Really nicely observed. Maybe a little bit whiter.

She has lots of fluffy clouds to paint.

-And what about writing your name?

-OK.

Well done. Really. Are you pleased with it?

-Yeah.

-Good.

-Very.

-Shall we go and make a cup of hot chocolate now?

-Yeah.

-Very good.

You worked really hard.

That is a beautiful painting.

A wonderful piece of art.

-So, Meredith, have you enjoyed listening to some of my story?

-Yes.

-And what was your favourite part?

-Painting.

-When we were painting outside?

-Yeah.

-Very good.

We'll have to do some more.

What a fabulous heap of fun!

That was Meredith and her mum, Julie's, tiny tale

about the things she used to do and the fun she had.

And why she has a big yellow box.

Mum Julie has shared her story with Meredith

and now Meredith is starting her own story.

Do you know someone who has a story to share?

Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd